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Women Make Movies - WMM

 

FILM SEGMENT - http://www.wmm.com/advscripts/wmmvideo.aspx?pid=145

 

http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c803.shtml

 

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.