Theatre of Violence (15)
Directed by Lukasz Konopa and Emil Langballe  

CAN someone be a victim and a perpetrator? That was at the heart of Dominic Ongwen’s defence case when he faced trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.  

Ongwen was just nine years old when he was abducted on his way to school in Uganda by rebel leader Joseph Kony’s The Lord’s Resistance Army, who had killed his parents. He was heavily indoctrinated by Kony, tortured and turned into a child soldier and killing machine who quickly climbed up the ranks to high commander in the LRA. Yet he is the only person to have been prosecuted for war crimes.  

Lukasz Konopa and Emil Langballe’s harrowing yet compelling documentary follows Ongwen’s trial in which they were given unprecedented access to his defence team, and also to the prosecution. Ongwen was charged with 70 offences including rape, murder, torture and abduction, which he denied. These scenes are fascinating and very insightful as his defence lawyers decide to emphasise the fact that he was a child victim himself who wasn’t protected, and who believed it was a case of kill or be killed. And as this case is made the prosecution team claim that this is no basis on which to give him a free pass.  

A childhood friend, who was kidnapped along with Ongwen, explains to his lawyer what happened to them and he agrees to testify on his behalf. The experience recounted is horrific and you cannot help but feel for them, as no nine-year-old should ever go through such an experience. However, when one of Ongwen’s victims describes how she was captured, and her baby was ripped from her arms and killed before her eyes on Ongwen’s orders, it is hard to have sympathy for him.  

The film asks whether it is fair that Ongwen, who was convicted of 61 charges and jailed for 25 years, should be made the scapegoat for the whole Ugandan conflict while key perpetrators, such as his abductor Kony, remain free. Many Ugandans in the documentary also speak out against the country’s long serving President Museveni and his army, who have also been accused of committing atrocities and crimes against humanity but face no prosecutions.  

Powerful and thought-provoking, the documentary examines whether justice has been served alongside collective trauma and how to move on from it. 

Out in cinemas tomorrow.