Slaves

Slaves

*****

Reviewed by: Amber Wilkinson

Animation is on the rise in documentary settings. Used most famously to bring to life Ari Folman's memories of and nightmares concerning the 1982 Lebanon War in Waltz With Bashir, it has also been used in short films such as, Never Like The First Time. The form offers the dual benefit of affording its subjects a level of anonymity - essential in the case of this short doc, since it involves vulnerable young children - and giving the documentarian the possibility of recreating memories of events which cameras weren't able to record.

David Aronowitsch and Hanna Heilborn's Slaves offers the testimony of two children, Abouk, 9, and Machiek, 15, who - like thousands of other children in Sudan - were kidnapped by government-backed militia and taken into slavery. The film begins by setting the scene, documenting, through animation, the interview set-up, and then broadening out to animate the children's horrific experiences at the hands of their captors.

Copy picture

By grounding it in the interview reality initially, the later scenes in which the children talk of other kids being "torn apart" or "thrown down a well" become, though it may scarcely seem possible, even more heart-rending. By not editing down their interviews - so that a sneeze and the usual scufflings associated with interview set-ups are also recorded - there is a concrete sense of just how true and harrowing this testimony is. Although the documentary strand at Edinburgh Film Festival was very strong this year, this film still stands out.

Reviewed on: 06 Jul 2009
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Animated documentary sees two Sudanese children recall time they spent as slaves.
Amazon link

Director: David Aronowitsch, Hanna Heilborn

Year: 2008

Runtime: 15 minutes

Country: Sweden, Norway, Denmark


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