For The Sake Of Peace

Directors Chistophe Castagne and Thomas Sametin have taken six years to complete this documentary set in South Sudan where more than 350,000 people have been killed since the country’s inception in 2011 and where civil war has been raging since it gained its independence.

Produced by Forest Whitaker (recipient of the Cannes Film Festival’s honorary Palme), the film looks at the ways the younger generation seek ways to live in peace rather than perpetual conflict.

Using painstakingly pieced together interviews, the directors adopt a fly on the wall perspective. Gatjang who is a football referee in a refugee camp, uses the power of football to bring together youngsters from opposing tribes. This tall and imposing man is revealed to have a wicked sense of humour.

One of the most quietly determined forces revealed is Nandege, a young mother, who suddenly finds herself being catapulted into a role as mediator in a confrontation that has gone on for generations in the Kidepo Valley.

Although war and deprivation is all around the directors find people with a courageous spirit. Rather than conducting specific interviews, the filmmakers have immersed themselves in the country and its inhabitants and powerfully allow them to speak in their own words.