From the moment I decided to screen this film I knew my emotions were going to be overwhelmed.  And there is good reason this film has won almost twenty-awards to date. 

War Dance is about three children in war displacement camp in Africa (Patongo).  Over 60,000 people live in this camp, and it is under constant military protection from rebels.   This true documentary takes a look into the escape that a dance competition offers these children in the face of a hopeless future. 

The pace is slow at first, soaking in the understanding that without war, this world they live in would be beautiful.  We learn the brutal truth of how they live with the loss of their parents by rebel soldiers.  Unlike children here in America where 7 times out of 10 some glimpse of hope exist for a child, these children live in silent prisons of trauma knowing the parents and world they had before the war will never return.  On this note alone you understand their despair and how a dance competition is something they eagerly embrace and believe in because they will appreciate even a moment of solace from the reality they live in; a camp with thousands of people that don't know them and on a whole shows no signs of ever ending.

The first story told was not only gruesome, it was one that made you doubt humanity.  A young girl named Nancy tells in vivid detail of the day her father was killed.  Her parents left to work in the field that morning and later her mother returned in silence.  Finally she told Nancy and her siblings their father was killed.  The rebels had cut their father into pieces with machetes.  The rebels then came and forced their mother to bury her what was left of her husband.  To see a child tell this story was almost unbearable. Even in a foreign language the pain her voice is tragic.  That night the rebels returned and broke into their home and took their mother outside.  They said to the children if they watched they would be killed.  They never saw their mother again and as he closed the story the most painful words flashed on screen, with tears in this still young child's eyes,  "We kept thinking we never got to tell our mother goodbye."  Emotionally I was destroyed and felt this film was going to be unfair in it's exposure.  The story did not end there.  Because it is real life. The story doesn't just end.  In real life the story is someones life, and they are left with the aftermath.  These children waited three days and realized their mother was never coming home.  Tears were still slowly dropping down this child's face.

The film makers didn't re-enact or play it up.   Instead we watched what could have been beautiful vistas at night under the threat of lightning and pouring rain.   The sound of thunder brought home the understanding of how these children hid in the rain fearing at any moment the rebels may find them and kill them.  And this is only the first fifteen minutes.   Could there be hope?   And if there is any hope, you now have a clear understanding of the value what a simple dance competition between villages in Uganda is worth to these children.  It may provide them no more happiness than the journey to that ephemeral reward, but that would be enough as they explain the dancing itself takes them back in time to when they were happy with their mothers and fathers. When everything was whole and right.

The film masquerades as a story of hope.  The journey of winning the national competition is a backdrop for exposing the vile cultural cycle in which the country of Uganda is trapped in.  For twenty years and more this struggle has gone on.   What end is there in sight?

The stories you hear from these three children leave you numb and punch drunk from this God awful truth. 

As documentaries go, I see the point of why this story should be told.  I do recommend it.  Children should not view it.  Teens may benefit from it to understand the fortunate circumstances they were born to here in America.

In a country with paved roads, soda machines, all night department stores and video games... we just don't get how much the rest of the world is struggling.  Almost any happiness we enjoy could be construed as decadent by comparison and we should feel guilty for what we have. 

If you are motivate to help the film makers suggest this site: http://www.amref.org/

My heart goes out to the children in this film.