Rebel (2012)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Rebel |
| Country of production | Canada |
| original language |
French Lingála |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Kim Nguyen |
| script | Kim Nguyen |
| production |
Pierre Even Marie-Claude Poulin |
| camera | Nicolas Bolduc |
| cut | Richard Comeau |
| occupation | |
| |
Rebelle , English-language title War Witch , is a French-Canadian feature film by Kim Nguyen from 2012. It follows the path of an African child soldier .
action
The 14-year-old Komona tells her unborn child about her last two years: At the age of 12, Komona and nine other children are kidnapped by the rebels of the Tigre Royal ("Big Tiger") into the African jungle. Before she leaves her village, the rebels force her to kill her own parents. They have been haunted by their spirits ever since and have asked them to bury them. In the jungle, Komona and the other children are taught how to fight and are provided with weapons. Komona makes the encounter with a combatant affected by albinism who works as a magician for the Tigre Royal and is therefore only called Magicien. When Komona later meets government soldiers with the rebels, she realizes earlier than anyone else that they are under attack. She survives as the only child in her village. Komona is now considered a witch who has special skills. In the following years she was able to warn the group of danger again and again, so that at the age of 13 she was highly adored as a war witch and was personally introduced to the Tigre Royal. She receives a rifle from him with supposedly magical powers. Since she is now under his personal protection as the witch of the Tigre Royal, she can no longer be attacked by the soldiers, who would otherwise risk their lives.
Since Tigre Royal has already killed three predecessors of Komonas in the past and decides the life and death of his soldiers at will, Magicien, who is in love with Komona, persuades them to flee. He wants to marry her, but Komona stipulates that he must get her a rare white rooster. After a while, Magicien is successful. Both go as a married couple to Magicien's uncle, called Le Boucher (the butcher), because he cuts animals. Komona and Magicien live and work in the household of Uncle Boucher, whose remaining family was killed by the rebels. One day the men from the Tigre Royal appear and want to bring Komona back as a war witch. Magicien defends his wife and is killed by the commandant because Komona refuses to shoot him. Komona is abducted. At the age of 14 she is made the commander's lover. Soon she is pregnant by him and one night kills him. She flees and gets back to Uncle Boucher via detours. Although he takes her into his family like a daughter, Komona has nightmares about her parents and her time as a soldier. When she attacks another woman in a maddened state, she flees to her parents' village. On the way she gives birth to her son. In her home village she does not find any bodies and instead symbolically buries her parents. You can see the parents' spirits depart. With her child, whom she wants to name Magicien after her husband, she goes back to her uncle's village; A truck stops along the way and, like many others, takes her along part of the way.
production
Director Nguyen worked on the script for around ten years, doing research on location in the Congo and also working with humanitarian aid organizations. Rebelle was filmed on location in the Congo, including Kinshasa . It was the second film in 20 years that was shot in the Congo. The young amateur actress Rachel Mwanza was chosen to play the Komona. At the time of the casting, she was a street child in Kinshasa and could neither read nor write. Mwanza, who had been rejected by her family, referred to the film crew as her new family. Eric Poirier created the costumes and Emmanuel Frechette designed the film . The film's narrator is Diane Uwamahoro .
Rebelle had its world premiere on February 17, 2012 at the Berlinale 2012 .
criticism
The Tagesspiegel praised the fact that the film "never succumbs to the temptation of sentimentality [...] Its brittleness is its beauty." Rebelle has turned out to be "downright great, very illuminating and very moving." A film with a direct, touching dramaturgy, but by no means looking for clear messages, ”praised the daily newspaper . The cast with amateur actors gives the film "a lot of documentary force [...] and [throws] a spotlight on the almost inhuman challenges ... that children are confronted with in the chaos of unstable African states," said Spiegel Online .
In the Frankfurter Rundschau, Peter Uehling criticized the content and formal indecision of the film: “The strands are connected by narrative tricks; In view of the laconic tone, however, they work just like that: like ordinary tricks. 'Rebelle' is full of atrocities, it spares the viewer nothing. Not even the question of why he should actually look at it. "
Awards (selection)
Rebelle was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 2012 Berlinale . Rachel Mwanza won the Silver Bear for Best Actress . Nicolas Bolduc was awarded the Golden Frog at the Polish film festival Camerimage . Rachel Mwanza was named Best Actress at the Tribeca Film Festival ; Kim Nguyen received the award for the best feature film. At the Satellite Awards 2012 , Rebelle was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film . The National Board of Review picked Rebelle up in the top 5 foreign-language films of the year.
Rebelle was nominated for an Oscar in 2013 for Best Foreign Language Film . The film won ten Canadian Screen Awards in 2013 and was nominated for two other awards; he also received eight Prix Jutra and two other Jutra nominations. The Directors Guild of Canada drew Rebelle from the DGC Craft Award for Best Production Design.
Web links
- Rebelle in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Nadine Emmerich: Child soldiers in the civil war in Africa - drama "Rebelle" presented in the Berlinale competition . dapd news agency, February 17, 2012.
- ↑ Katja Lüthge: Teen stars from two different worlds . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 18, 2012, p. 27.
- ↑ Wenke Husmann: The fate of a child soldier should give hope . zeit.de, February 18, 2012.
- ↑ Kerstin Decker: Witch, saint. Child soldier drama: "Rebels" in competition . In: Der Tagesspiegel , February 18, 2012, p. 24.
- ↑ Dirk Knipphals: Speech to an unborn child . In: taz , February 18, 2012, p. 47.
- ↑ Andreas Borcholte: The Krasse shortly before the end . spiegel.de, February 18, 2012.
- ↑ Peter Uehling: Ghosts come in war . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , February 18, 2012, p. 33.