Ezra is the first film to present an African perspective on the disturbing phenomenon of abducting child soldiers into the continent's recent civil wars. I watched this film at Cascade Festival of African Films.
Sierra Leone, a 6 year old boy named Ezra (Mamodou) is kidnapped, drugged, and brainwashed by rebels who seek to overthrow the Sierra Leone government, and he become a killer machine for the civil war. Seven years later, Ezra's sister (Mariame N’Diaye) comes before a truth and reconciliation tribunal with stories of her teenage brother's bloodbath, as Ezra denies any knowledge of these crimes, he claims that he was a political soldier and killing people is what soldiers do, flashbacks explain his ordeal. Ten years ago, a group of rebels invade Ezra’s schoolyard and start firing machine guns. Six-year-old Ezra, together with other children, is caught and abducted. Taken away to a distant rebel camp, they are injected with methamphetamines, brainwashed into fighting machines. They sent on a four-day killing rampage. Ezra ends up assisting the murder of his own parents, as his sister testified.
Director: Newton I. Aduaka
Producer: Gorune Aprikian and Michel Loro
Cast: Mamoudu Turay Kamara, Mariame N'Diaye, Mamusu Kallon and Richard Gant
