The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘WarWitch’ film follows girl soldier in Congo
MxCC screening award-winning documentary told through child’s eyes
MIDDLETOWN » A powerful independent film called “WarWitch” will be screened on Tuesday, a continuation of theannual Common Ground Middletown International Film Festival.
The film will be shown at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Middlesex Community College, 100 Training Hill Road.
The award-winning documentary by Kim Nguyen offers a terrifying glimpse of how children are brutally transformed into lethal weapons, following one girlsoldier’s experience in a war against the government of a nondescript African nation.
The film will be introduced by Democratic Republic of the Congo native Ivon Kalonji, 24, a Middletown resident formore than a year.
“Most people don’t know a lot about DRC,” said Kalonji. “I knew (the film) was the only chance for people around the world to know what is going on, the abuse against women, all people.”
“Ivon’s knowledgeable about the conditions in DRC — child soldiers, civil war, destruction caused by mining,” said Middlesex Professor Tad Lincoln, who taught Kalonji while teaching economics at the school.
Lincoln invited Kalonji to speak to to his international relations class “about the Coltan issues in DRC, around which the “War Witch” story revolves,” he said in an email.
He is from DRC, and has been in the United States for two years.
“Always keep an eye on where you are from,” said Kalonji, who plans to share his knowledge. “Live for others.”
One theme of the film is how Coltan mining has led to disruptions in society in the DRC, said Russell Library volunteer Stephanie Elliott.
“This mining is driving the strife shown in the film, and the rise of the ‘child soldier,’ as the people there are fighting over territory,” Elliott said.
“War Witch” is “a love story set in war times, told thru eyes of a child abducted by rebels, that follows her path from darkness to light,” said writer/director Nguyen in an interview posted at rebelle-lefilm.ca/english.
The film also cast children fromthe streets in Kinshasa, the DRC capital, to star in the lead roles. One of these children is Rachel Mwanza, who played themain character Komona.
Nguyen discovered from research of the wars in Angola, Burma and Sierra Leone that girl-soldiers were forcibly conscripted into such wars, representing about 50 percent of the child soldiers, but, comparatively, get little attention.
This film give those girls a voice.
The festival is organized by Russell Library with partners Middlesex Community College and Wesleyan University. The final films are “Shun Li and the Poet,” to screen Oct. 28 at Middlesex Community, and “Clandestine Childhood,” to screen on Nov. 4 at Russell Library.
“War Witch” will be shown Tuesday at MxCC’s Chapman Hall, Room 808C and D. For information, see russelllibrary.org.