Bringing the plight of child soldiers in Africa to the screen, ‘The Silent Army’ - 2009 Cannes Film Festival winner - has been selected as the official Dutch submission to the Oscars.

Child soldiers
Having consulted on the original Dutch version of the movie, ‘Wit Licht’, War Child Holland hopes that the international attention to ‘The Silent Army’ will not only help place the effect war has on children on a higher political and social agenda, but will also inspire as many people as possible to take action in the name of child soldiers and other children affected by war.

Children in war
Today, over 250,000 children around the world are being exploited as child soldiers. While the movie itself is fiction, the stories of the children in this movie are based on real life experiences of (former) child solders and other children affected by war who have taken part in War Child programmes.

The real story
War Child was involved in the production of the movie from the very beginning, offering knowledge and expertise about the problematic situation in Africa, particularly when it comes to child soldiers. By participating in the making of this film, War Child hoped to develop a script that was as authentic as possible. The actors in the movie were introduced to our programmes in order to help them prepare for their roles. Some of them were child soldiers themselves.

About the movie
First released in Dutch under the title ‘Wit Licht’, ‘The Silent Army’ was written and directed by Jean van de Velde and stars Dutch musician and War Child Ambassador Marco Borsato, actors Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga and Thekla Reuten, and introduces Andrew Kintu. The film was released in Dutch theatres in early December 2008 and has so far achieved over 300.000 admissions in the Netherlands.

Cannes
The movie was selected at the 2009 Cannes Film festival under the category 'Une Certain Regard' and was received with an historically long standing ovation..

Read about the viewing at Cannes:
Cannes Festival site
In the New York Times/Herald Tribune
In www.screendaily.com

Oscars
The final nomination for the Academy Awards for category 'Best Foreign Language Film'  will be publicised on February 2nd, 2010. The Oscars will be given out on March 7th, 2010.



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