SummaryKomona (Rachel Mwanza) is only 12 years old when she is kidnapped by rebel soldiers and enslaved to a life of guerrilla warfare in the African jungle. Forced to commit unspeakable acts of brutality, she finds hope for survival in protective, ghost-like visions and in a tender relationship with a fellow soldier named Magician (Serge Kanyinda). Tog... Read More
Directed By:Kim Nguyen
Written By:Kim Nguyen, Simon Trépanier, Alexandre Mangona
War Witch
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
84
User score
Generally Favorable
7.5
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
84
94% Positive
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
6% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Mar 29, 2013
100
Feels startlingly real and inherently relevant, a shining, sterling example of cinema at its most powerful and urgent.
Mar 7, 2013
90
The powerful things we expect from War Witch are as advertised, but what we don't expect is even better.
Mar 28, 2013
88
War Witch deals with a reality so horrific that the film’s touches of magical realism are welcome, even necessary — the only way to retain one’s bearings and sanity in a world without signposts.
Mar 8, 2013
83
War Witch is most effective not when we are looking in on Komona but when we are inside her head. When she says that, in order to survive in the rebel camp, she “had to learn to make the tears go inside my eyes,” our identification with her is total.
Feb 26, 2013
80
Nguyen's matter-of-fact storytelling proves to be the right match for a life of extraordinary suffering. In art, lives like Komona's are all too often given an alien sheen. Here, they feel unnervingly plausible.
Feb 22, 2013
75
So is this a Western take on Africa? Yes, but Rebelle is full of such careful detail, and is carried so beautifully by Mwanza’s performance, that questions of authenticity slide away.
Feb 28, 2013
50
Though ostensibly a character study, it's nevertheless characterized by the vaguely moralizing tone of an issue film, one whose candor in the face of brutality seems calculated for maximum liberal appeal.
User score
Generally Favorable
7.5
80% Positive
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
12% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
8% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Apr 2, 2013
9
A remarkable story that even though it does not claim to be based on a true story, it probably is. It is the story of a 12 year old narrating to her unborn child the harrowing story of how she ended up in the rebel forces in an unnamed country in Africa and what she'd been through. It is such a good film that without ever being over the top it manages to mesmerize the audience with a mix of great acting, exquisitely chosen soundtrack of African folk and pop music, extraordinary cinematography including the hair raising depictions of the spirits of the dead. It is a film that will not easily be forgotten.
Nov 27, 2016
8
Rebelle is an intense, harrowing, violent drama in its entirety, even if it tries at all cost to minimize its total brutality, it still manages to be shocking, tonalizing in counterpart, it makes us sympathize with its protagonist, that even after what it has done, was A mere victim of war.
Production Company:
- Item 7
- Shen Studio
- Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC)
- Film and Television Tax Credit Administered by SODEC
- Gestion SODEC
- MELS
- SODEC Québec
- Téléfilm Canada
Release Date:Mar 1, 2013
Duration:1 h 30 m
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
Canadian Screen Awards, CA
• 10 Wins & 12 Nominations
Jutra Awards
• 8 Wins & 10 Nominations
