Johnny Mad Dog
Rating (MA15+) va
Synopsis
“Sauvaire presents us a brutal and unflinching look at these child soldiers, and the piles of rubble and death that they leave behind”
- EFILMCRITIC
The WORLD MOVIES Channel Radar has been switched on and is sweeping the world’s film vaults for hidden cinematic gems, underground cuts and innovative eye candy.
The Radar: Located. Chosen. Screened. Through the eyes of a West African child soldier and a victimised teenage girl, Johnny Mad Dog is a brutal and unflinching look at child soldiers, revealing a dark and sombre insight into the Civil Wars that ravaged Liberia from 1989 to 2003 and left a country devastated and dispersed.
Based on the novel with the same name by Congolese author Emmanuel Dongala in 2002, 15 year old Johnny Mad Dog is already a veteran of war, wreaking a violent attack upon a Congolese city with his rebel militant group. Fuelled by a toxic combination of drugs, power and fear, Johnny Mad Dog and his recruit’s rape, rob and murder their way through the country. Laokole on the other hand, is a gentle teenage girl who is forced to flee her home seeking safety for her family.
A fearsome plunge into the world of child soldiers in present day West Africa, Johnny Mad Dog initially repulses with its brutalising depictions of civil-war carnage but the dim hope of redemption embodied in the character of Laokole undermines the continual atrocities and creates a compelling anti-war document. In July 2008, the film was screened at the United Nations headquarters in New York in order to highlight the real-life plight of children depicted in the film.
Winner of the ‘Regard Hope Award’ at the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival, fifteen former child soldiers from Liberia, most of whom fought for Charles Taylor’s Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, were cast in the film. Director Jean-Stèphane Sauvaire used this opportunity to found the Johnny Mad Dog Foundation, which provides support for cast members who were left without family or homes because of the country's civil war.
When will this screen next?
Monday 11 October 11:30 AM
Encore Screenings
Monday 11 October 7:50 PM
Tuesday 12 October 8:40 AM
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