Rebelle 2012

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It may be hard for a viewer to accept some of the paranormal goings-on in War Witch -- the ghosts, the superstitions, the otherworldly powers -- but they're nothing compared to the realities that Komona has to endure. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: The movie is committed to revealing the world through Komona's eyes, and you never feel a taint of voyeurism or condescension. It stays true to her. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Nguyen, astonishingly, manages to wring something vaguely like a happy ending from this tragic story. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: War Witch is a remarkably mature portrait that trusts its audience to have their own reactions to its material; it doesn't yank at the heartstrings so much as expertly tune them. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: War Witch gives us a continent's tragedy in a young girl's face. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Canadian writer-director Kim Nguyen spent nearly a decade researching this docudrama about child soldiers in Africa, and the film feels as authoritative as a first-hand account. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: War Witch is most effective not when we are looking in on Komona but when we are inside her head. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Nguyen brings the harshness of this world alive not with big dramatic flourishes but with an everyday tone that makes it all the more frightening. This is how it is - how else would it be? Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: It's depressing stuff, to be sure, but it does a marvelous job at giving us an impressionistic taste of horrific circumstances without using them to beat us into submission. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: The sensitively imagined story of a child soldier in Africa makes War Witch a genre benchmark and a breakout work for writer-director Kim Nguyen. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The powerful things we expect from "War Witch" are as advertised, but what we don't expect is even better. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This intense, gripping drama is utterly transporting. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Brutality and tenderness are a potent mix in "War Witch." Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A haunting take on unspeakably grim subject matter, shot on location in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: Atrocity and beauty somehow co-exist in War Witch. Read more

Guy Dixon, Globe and Mail: Rebelle is full of such careful detail, and is carried so beautifully by Mwanza's performance, that questions of authenticity slide away. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: The ghosts of murdered villagers that haunt a young girl brutally forced into slavery as a child soldier in Rebelle mirror the film's dramatic effect on an audience. Read more

Sam Adams, Time Out: The film's subject is almost too horrible to contemplate, but it finds a way to space out the blows without softening them. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A powerful and upsetting portrait of a young girl compelled into unimaginably horrific circumstances. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: Along with the moral lesson, Nguyen remembers to give auds some pleasures, including the exquisitely chosen soundtrack of African folk and pop music, Nicolas Bolduc's cinematography and the very artful use of sound throughout. Read more

Zachary Wigon, Village Voice: Nguyen's matter-of-fact storytelling proves to be the right match for a life of extraordinary suffering. Read more