In January, the International Criminal Court in The Hague resumed the trial of Dominic Ongwen, a high-ranking officer in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
Joseph Kony's notorious rebel army sowed death and destruction in and around Uganda for more than twenty years. Ongwen is accused of horrific war crimes. His defence: I was only a child when Kony abducted me, I didn't know any better.
In the needlessly artistic but pressing documentary Wrong Elements, Jonathan Littell, the author of The Kindly Ones, follows three adults who like Ongwen were forced to serve the LRA. Geofrey and Mike were child soldiers, Nighty was a sex slave. Littell is fascinated by the fact that they were both oppressors and the oppressed, but fortunately he gives them the space to talk about the issues themselves.
Ongwen's surrender is a highpoint of the film. Kony has still not been arrested. Turning away from the horrors and the complexity of life that goes on afterwards is not an option.
> Wrong elements. FR, BE, 2016, dir.: Jonathan Littell, 133 min.
> Galeries, UGC Gulden Vlies/Toison d’Or
Read more about: Film
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