I saw this film as part of the Rotterdam film festival 2013 (IFFR). It shows the fallout of a civil war in Kenya after a presidential election in 2007 with controversial results. The story starts when victim Anne is allowed to leave her hospital bed. She learns that her husband was killed and her son heavily injured after their farm was raided by a drunken gang. Against all odds she wants to rebuild the burned down house, trying to start a new life at the very place with so many bad memories. The predictable comments from family and friends are far from encouraging, but she persists nevertheless.
A separate story line revolves around Joseph, a member of aforementioned gang. He is trying to disconnect himself from his former friends, to come at peace with what happened at the same time. Part of the healing process is that he makes attempts to help Anne, e.g. by stealing building material from his employer and delivering it on her doorstep. For some time he succeeds in avoiding to reveal his identity to Anne.
It cannot be prevented, however, that Anne and Joseph meet each other, causing past memories to be relived as a logical side effect. Gradually we obtain more information what happened in the dreaded night, in the form of flashbacks. Luckily, the gory details are left to our imagination for the greater part.
The grand achievement of this film is the revealing inside view in Kenyan civil war issues. It is very different from the more abstract reports in newspapers and on TV. It was a very nice touch that both sides were shown without judging about good and bad, in the form of the two parallel story lines crossing each other a few times. However, it leaves you with a depressed feeling about all the misery that has been caused and the waste of human lives, for no reason other than politicians who artificially create "them" and "us" differences between people while it benefits their own purposes.
All in all, I could do nothing else than giving the maximum score for the audience award when leaving the theater. The resulting final score, based on 164 votes, was a far above average 4.128 (out of 5), resulting in a 31st place (out of 178).
A separate story line revolves around Joseph, a member of aforementioned gang. He is trying to disconnect himself from his former friends, to come at peace with what happened at the same time. Part of the healing process is that he makes attempts to help Anne, e.g. by stealing building material from his employer and delivering it on her doorstep. For some time he succeeds in avoiding to reveal his identity to Anne.
It cannot be prevented, however, that Anne and Joseph meet each other, causing past memories to be relived as a logical side effect. Gradually we obtain more information what happened in the dreaded night, in the form of flashbacks. Luckily, the gory details are left to our imagination for the greater part.
The grand achievement of this film is the revealing inside view in Kenyan civil war issues. It is very different from the more abstract reports in newspapers and on TV. It was a very nice touch that both sides were shown without judging about good and bad, in the form of the two parallel story lines crossing each other a few times. However, it leaves you with a depressed feeling about all the misery that has been caused and the waste of human lives, for no reason other than politicians who artificially create "them" and "us" differences between people while it benefits their own purposes.
All in all, I could do nothing else than giving the maximum score for the audience award when leaving the theater. The resulting final score, based on 164 votes, was a far above average 4.128 (out of 5), resulting in a 31st place (out of 178).
