Cahier africain
It all started with a small school exercise book. But instead of being full of vocabulary, the pages were checkered with the courageous testimonies of 300 Central African women, girls and men. They reveal what Congolese mercenaries did to them between October 2002 and March 2003 in the wake of armed conflict. On their own initiative, they gathered together their testimonies in this book to record the crimes committed against them. As a result of rape, Amzine, a young Muslim woman, gave birth to a child. Looking at her now 12-year-old daughter Fane is a daily reminder of the suffering she entrusted to this book. Arlette, a Christian girl, has agonised for years due to a gunshot to the knee that did not want to heal. After a successful surgery in Berlin, she holds on to hope for a pain-free existence. But while they try to master their difficult daily lives with confidence – and while, in The Hague, the legal prosecution of crimes committed during the last war is still in progress – the next war breaks out in the Central African Republic.Amzine, Fane and Arlette must once again face a maelstrom of violence, death and expulsion.
„Cahier Africain” by Heidi Specogna on the ongoing atrocities between different religious and ethnic groups in the Central African Republic centers around the lives of Arlette, a young wounded Christian girl and the Muslim woman Amzine with her daughter born after brutal rape. Amidst the desperate situation Amzine manages to find a fragile safety as refugee in Chad. There the rift between mother and daughter starts to heal.
The Interrreligious Jury congratulates the filmmaker on her sensitive approach to her protagonists, her poetic filming and for leaving us with a shimmer of hope through the images of the women rebuilding their lives.