More international magical mystery from a Québec filmmaker: Kim Nguyen’s “War Witch” (Rebelle) seems a cousin to Denis Villeneuve’s 2010 “Incendies,” coursing its myth across the Middle East in bold visual terms (as well as “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” distantly). Komona (Rachel Mwanza) is a twelve-year-old girl enlisted against her will to become a rebel in an unamed African country (while shot in Congo) but who also has a raft of magical powers. Horror and whimsy alternate, to often impressive result. Things occur to the child soldiers onscreen. Ordinary moments; atrocity. They simply occur. Mwanza, a non-actor off the streets of Kinshasa, is key to the film’s success, as well how the matter-of-factness is conveyed with neo-documentary urgency in Nicolas Bolduc’s largely handheld camerawork. 89m. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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