LOST CHILDREN - VERLORENE KINDER
Deutschland (Uganda) 2004 – Director: Oliver Stoltz, Ali Samadi Ahadi – Original language: Acholi – Subtitles: English – Length: 95 min.
Forever lost. Almost completely unnoticed by the rest of the world, Northern Uganda has been suffering a bloody civil war for over 18 years now. The rebels of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) are fighting against the government to set up a Christian theocracy. Every year, they abduct thousands of children and force them to kill and torture their own families and people.
The two directors who were both confronted with war during their own childhoods have chosen to tell this story from the perspective of four children from 8 to 14 years old. Jennifer, Kilama, Francis and Opio have successfully escaped from the bush camps of the LRA. In the rehabilitation centre of Pajule, they try to find their way back to normality and to being children again. But they are beset by horrific nightmares and haunted by the memory of the unthinkable atrocities they were forced to watch or commit. They are branded as killers, rejected by their villages and feared by their families. As their childhood is forever lost, the only possible solution for them is to try to become adults. Lost Children is an appeal as well as an homage to the social workers Grace and John who try to maintain some kind of hope in this inhuman nightmare.
Award: 3rd Panorama Audience Award, Berlin 2005; Humanitarian Award, Chicago 2005
Writer: Ali Samadi Ahadi / Oliver Stoltz. Camera: Maik Behres. Sound: Jens Schwarzburg. Editing: Ali Samadi Ahadi. Music: Ali Askin. Production: Dreamer Joint Venture Filmproduktion GmbH. Producer: Oliver Stoltz. Distribution: Timebandits Films.
