Theatre of Violence

A documentary by Emil Langballe and Lukasz Konopa | 105 min | 2022 | DK, D

Dominic Ongwen was nine years old when the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, abducted him from his parents' home in Gulu, Uganda. Dominic was tortured, brainwashed, and forced to kill. He was not released and he has not escaped. After around 30 years in the bush, he finally surrendered. He was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, extradited to the International Criminal Court in The Hague and imprisoned. There he is currently on trial on an unprecedented precedent: Ongwen is the first former child soldier to be tried for war crimes. The film follows Ongwen's attorney Krispus Ayena and his team during the trial before the International Criminal Court and in Uganda, where they are viewing material , Gathering evidence and testimony. They want to find out what Ongwen experienced in the bush and what influence these experiences had on him. For them, this case is much more than just another mandate.