WUNRN
Women Make Movies - WMM
FILM SEGMENT - http://www.wmm.com/advscripts/wmmvideo.aspx?pid=145
CONGO
- WEAPON OF WAR FILM - RAPE TESTIMONIES
A
film by Ilse
van Velzen & Femke
van Velzen
Netherlands/Congo,
2009, 59 minutes, Color, DVD, French/Swahili, Subtitled
Order No. W1033
In
no other country has sexual violence matched the scale of brutality reached in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During nearly two decades of conflicts
between rebels and government forces, an estimated 150,000 Congolese women and
girls fell victim to mass rape. That figure continues to rise.
WEAPON OF WAR, an award-winning film honored by Amnesty International, journeys
to the heart of this crisis, where we meet its perpetrators. In personal
interviews, soldiers and former combatants provide openhearted but shocking
testimony about rape in the DRC. Despite differing views on causes or criminal
status, all reveal how years of conflict, as well as discrimination against
women, have normalized brutal sexual violence. We also see former rapists
struggling to change their own or others’ behavior, and reintegrate into their
communities.