Foreign Affairs: REBELLE

Frankly, I found this film hard to watch.

However, that is not a knock on the acting or direction.

Rather it is the subject matter of the film: the plight of child soldiers in Africa.

French-Canadian filmmaker Kim Nguyen shoots the film with unflinching, documentary-type realism. Which only adds to the raw, vivid narrative.

9 year old Quvenzhané Wallis received an Academy Award nomination for her  role  in the independent film Beasts of the Southern Wild. As a young African-American girl struggling to deal with her troubled father and the after effects of Hurricane Katrina on her small backwater community, young Ms. Wallis justifies all the hype surrounding her precocious performance. She is just as natural and convincing  as you may have heard/read (She was just six when she made the film.)

However, after seeing Rebelle, I couldn’t help but wish 15 year old Congolese actress Rachel Mwanza could share in the Oscar love. (This is also her first film.)

Her role as a young child soldier in an unnamed African country is arguably even more challenging.

Rachel Mwanza as Komona – Academy All the Way

Her character, Komona, is abducted from her village at the age of 12, forced at gunpoint to kill her parents, learns how to handle an AK-47 like a pro, is “married” in a jungle ceremony, watches her “husband”  felled by a machete and conceives a child.

All before the age of 15!

Ms. Mwanza’s performance is so effortless and intuitive (and Mr. Nguyen’s script and direction are so sure-footed) that it is hard to believe she is acting. 

Rachel Mwanza (with writer/director Kim Nguyen in the background)

I should mention that although Ms. Mwanza did not personally receive an Oscar nom, Rebelle (English title: The War Witch) has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Yes, there are English subtitles for the film (although, in the DVD copy I rented, Mr. Nguyen’s accompanying audio commentary is completely en francais.)

Trivia Sidebar: This is the third year in a row National Film Board of Canada has earned an Oscar nomination in this category:  the others were Denis Villeneuve’s excellent Incendies (2010) and Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar (2011).