I liked 'War Witch" a lot. It is a Canadian production, set in Africa (Congo) and directed by a Viet Namese born Canadian director. It is a fascinating movie about a 12 year old African girl who is kidnapped by guerrillas, forced to kill her own parents, made to carry out guerrilla raids in the jungles, has the good fortune to form one tender relationship, but is obsessed by the ghosts of her parents, convincing her that she must go back to her destroyed village and symbolically bury her parents. It was nominated for an Oscar and won 11 international awards.

Rebelle aka War Witch is a Canadian film nominated for Best Foreign film. A village is attacked by rebels, a young girl is forced to shoot her parents and is kidnapped to become a child soldier. The rebels seem to be in essence a large criminal enterprise mining coltan and fighting the gov't forces, with no ideology or other motivation mentioned.

It's a pretty grim film and important subject matter. But I didn't think the film was that well done, even if its heart and social politics are in the right place. The handheld cam and tight close-ups of parts of people and fragments of action has really become an annoying cliche by now. The lead girl does a fairly good job in a tough role. And she's on screen in nearly every scene. The dilapidated Chinese pagoda in the middle of the jungle used as the rebel headquarters is a pretty odd and arresting image. But some of the other elements are handled a little clumsily.

I think I preferred the similar Kinyarwanda, which had similar flaws and strengths, mostly dealing with non-actors and filming in Africa. Though in Kinyarwanda the female soldier is oddly a heroic action-hero type. War Witch wouldn't be my pick for a final foreign film nominee. But they both are important films due to their message and just the fact that they were made.