The Silent Army (Jean Van De Velde): South Africa

Reveiwed by Anaiya Mussolini in Hollywood, CA at the Graumans Chinese Theater as part of the AFI film festival 2009.

The Silent Army is truly heartfelt and moving in so many ways. It is about children who are taken from their homes, many whose families have been killed, and forced to become rebel soldiers. Not only is this true, but the way in which they captured the essence of what is truly going on makes it feel more real than you want it to. It is about a young African boy named Abu who is taken and his white friend wants to find him. Because the boy is too young to go in search of him, the white boy’s father goes instead.

This movie is reality. It also captures the simplistic nature of how things are over there.  Abu’s dad even made him a fake video game remote because they were too poor to buy the real thing. Though it was no the real thing, it still meant a lot to him that his dad took the time to make it.

There is so much tragedy in this film that some of you may not be able to sit through the entire film, as many people walked out, while I was there, which showcases just how good of a job they did on the cinematography. But if you can manage to stick it out, then you will see the sad, yet enlightening story of the realities there.

After kidnapping the children, the rebel soldiers humiliate them by making them call the soldier in charge whose name is Obeke, Daddy, reminding them of what they lost. They even make the kids attack a church showing you how brutal it really is over there.

The mise-en-scene adds to this feeling of actuality because their clothes are torn, they live in shacks that are made of grass and sticks. Everything is so open and big which leaves you to believe that they can get away. Yet, even in a place so big, they are still very small and trapped to flee from the danger.

What is sad is, after you are with something for so long and after you have lost so much, it is easy to loose yourself and in the end Abu ultimately did. He had so much pain and aggression and once he was a soldier he could take it out on others rather than go back to the suffering or watching it. He did not want to deal with it anymore. So when he had the chance at escaping, he thought what’s the use.

This movie not only shows the nasty truth about what going on over there but also highlights that the white still does not share with the black. Obeke does not see these kids as children; he sees them as adults because they will live half the life of a white man. So in a way this movie is really about greed and how much we will let it affect our lives. Will we do something about it, or continue to watch innocent lives perish.