Admit One

Synopsis: A group of children from a refugee camp in northern Uganda travel to Kampala to participate in the country's school music and dance festival.

Technical Details

Title War Dance Country United States Genre Documentary Language English Director Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Cast Year 2007     My Rating More Info IMDB Buy Amazon

Review

This Oscar nominated documentary follows three children that live in a refugee camp under military protection in northern Uganda. These camps were setup by the Ugandan government to protect citizens from the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group that not only indiscriminately tortures and kills civilians, but also kidnaps children and enlists them as their soldiers by force. Nancy, Dominic and Rose tell their incredibly tragic stories through tears and sobs to the camera, and while they speak about the atrocities they have been through, a sequence of unsettling images, mostly close-ups, vaguely relate to their narration.

The children go to school in the camp, and their school has been selected to participate in a music and dance competition in Kampala, the capital, so we also get to see how they prepare for the big event, and how they heal their wounds through music. The film follows them as they prepare for three of the eight categories in which they will compete, a western choral performance, an instrumental musical and finally the traditional dance. The last part of the film takes us to the actual competition in Kampala and the prize ceremony.

The film sports an unusual visual quality, it is so beautiful that some criticize it for not showing things like they are in real life. I believe that the faces of these little children, with all the suffering and the tears running from their eyes, are beautiful, and the filmmakers used all the tools they had at hand to highlight this beauty. The film does not go into details about the conflict between the rebels and the government, for those that are not familiar with it it would have been useful to have a short introduction. The accounts made by the children are extremely gruesome and may upset sensible viewers, hopefully that will not scare you away from this excellent documentary.

©2008 by Miguel Grinberg

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