Ezra

Unsparing, pedagogic, and genuinely compelling.

Aduaka's comprehensive account of an African nightmare covers a lot of important ground, making this flawed film worth seeing.

A passionate, harrowing drama about rebellion, atrocity and child soldiering in Africa, Ezra is raw and violent. There's no denying the film's power, or its frankness regarding the ongoing tragedy of Africa.

There’s no questioning the sincerity of the filmmakers or the urgency of the subject matter, but the clumsiness with which this harrowing story of a child soldier in Africa may wear you out long before the puzzle is put together.

The movie’s sense of time is as vague as Ezra’s perception of it. Chaos is all he knows. Making Ezra even harder to follow, and undermining its authenticity, is the fact that its mostly African cast speaks in a heavily accented English. Mr. Kamara’s glowering lead performance, however, is riveting.

The story is hell to follow--the flashbacks aren’t in chronological order--and the nonacting variable.

The film is so committed to its view of Ezra as a pawn in the psychotic game of postcolonial Africa that he is never allowed, as a character, to become more than a pawn.