The Basics: A documentary about a refugee camp full of orphans in northern Uganda. Their villages have been destroyed by rebel militias, their parents and siblings raped and murdered. What they have left is folk dances and songs of their region, which they practice diligently in order to compete in nationwide competitions.
What's the Deal? If it weren't for the fact that everything you see here is true, it could almost be someone's idea of a parody of a documentary. But then, of course, when you're faced with real singing and dancing orphans, some of whom have narrowly escaped slaughter or have been rescued from the nightmare of becoming child soldiers themselves, those thoughts are quickly erased, and you have to deal with the devastating sadness of these kids' lives. Then they sing and dance, and you end up crying.
The Limitations: The three main children in the movie narrate their own experiences — one was a child soldier and forced to kill other innocent people, another saw her parents murdered in front of her — facing the camera directly, seemingly reading scripted accounts. This is just one of the ways it relies on really manipulative and transparent devices meant to move you. Which means it's a movie made for people who don't actually care about this stuff yet. You have to wonder how many will bother watching it in the first place.
Why It's Good in Spite of Itself: There's a point to it, and I don't believe it's meant to be a movie about erasing misery in the viewer. I think it's meant to inspire the audience to take even small actions to keep helping these kids to keep going in spite of the hell they've all been through. You can forgive it for its lack of deep analysis, right? I can.
But Just in Case You Don't See It: Go to these websites — all of them in the final credits of the movie — and do something anyway:
www.shineglobal.org
www.gng.org
www.theirc.org
www.thenamecampaign.org
www.ugandacan.org
www.worldvision.org