Educational Media Reviews Online

This is a moving, impacting documentary about the ongoing conflict and horror that has been imposed on the non-Arab Sudanese people by the Islamic government of Sudan. With an interest in the issue of genocide and a deep concern for the victims, Jonathan Pednault, a Canadian high school student, persuades filmmaker Alexandre Trudeau to travel with him to Sudan to document the ethnic cleansing in Darfur and the conditions of the refugees. Their journey begins in Eastern Chad where the World Food Program struggles to transport 8 tons of food through the desert every month to approximately 420,000 refugees. They move on to one of the refugee camps. Here they find people who are sick, malnourished, fighting over drinking water and living in flimsy, roofless shacks. Finally, they meet up with their contact, El-Tahir Badawi. He is a commander in JEM, the Justice and Equality Movement, a guerrilla army and the largest rebel faction in Darfur. As they moved into Darfur for the first of many days spent in Jebel Mun, they come upon villages, people and livestock that have been destroyed and killed by the bullet, fire, and missile attacks of the Janjaweed, a nomadic Arabic tribe supported by the Khartoum regime. They return to Chad and to a group of refugees struggling for survival and who wait for over a month for UN transport to a safer place. Piling into trucks they go from a grim and desperate situation to a camp that at least for now offers aid and shelter. They live day to day facing an uncertain future that is dependent on political decisions and international aid.

With variety of content, impacting visuals, and well-paced structure this is a captivating film from beginning to end. The primary purpose of this documentary is to put real faces on the people of Darfur and to give a voice to the victims of these hateful atrocities. The filmmakers have done an excellent job of accomplishing this with quality filming, excellent narration, and informative personal interviews. The documentary also asks why this is happening and suggests the various possibilities such as oil, ethnicity, climate, water, power, and politics. Although the documentary filmmakers mention ethnic cleansing, and include statements proclaiming genocide, it seemed that the viewpoint expressed in the film favored the battle over oil interests as the main cause of the current crisis in Darfur. Background information on the relevant Arab racism, Islamic bigotry and discriminatory practices would have provided greater context and understanding for the current situation. Nevertheless, this film offers an important view into the current situation in Darfur and a much needed call to action.