The Wits University based Origins Centre will screen the film Ezra on Sunday, 22 May. This is the first film to give an African perspective on the disturbing practice of abducting children and turning them into soldiers for the continent’s recent civil wars.
Ezra is structured around the week-long questioning of a 16-year-old boy, Ezra, in a Truth and Reconciliation Commission-like structure that was created in Sierra Leone in 2002 in the wake of its decade-long civil war. This hearing is then inter-cut with chronological flashbacks to pivotal moments during Ezra’s 10 years in the rebel faction which made him who he is today.
The jigsaw puzzle of what occurred is reconstructed through the testimonies of three witnesses: Ezra himself, his sister Onitcha, and Cynthia, Ezra’s fellow ex-soldier. What is supposed to be reconciliation soon becomes a trial, as Onitcha chooses this as the arena to reveal a secret she has kept from her brother.
Ezra has been screened at film festivals around the world and has won a number of awards.
The Origins Centre screening will be introduced by Theogene Niwenshuti, a Rwandan peace activist, artist and teacher. Niwenshuti has over the past 15 years been involved in campaigns, conferences, workshops and festivals in Africa and Europe, interacting with youth and adults on issues of human rights and conflict resolution. Among his many achievements is a nomination for the Bishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship. Kidnapped by militias in 1994, Niwenshuti has experienced the direct horrors of political and ethnic conflicts in the Great Lakes and East African Regions – events which led him, to dedicate himself to peace activism.
Doors will open at 6pm and the screening will take place at 6.30pm. Entry fee is R50 for the general public and R40 for Wits University staff and students. To RSVP, e-mail ask@origins.org.za or call 011 717 4700. Please note that booking essential.
