War Dance is the story of students at a school in an Acholi refugee camp that is under the protection of the Ugandan military, who have been selected to participate in a music and dance competition in the nation’s capitol of Kampala. Specifically, the film focuses on three students, each of whom must overcome their own set of hardships. There is Nancy, who after losing her father to the war, must raise her siblings while her mother works. Rose has lost both parents to the war, and has to endure the sadistically suffocating parentage of her aunt, who threatens (on camera, but off screen) that she will be beaten if her chores aren’t completed. Lastly, there is Dominic, the cheerful xylophone player who lives with the memories of having to kill as a child conscript for the LRA. Listening to these children and their horrific stories of survival is not only heartbreaking, but guaranteed to render any of your own stories of adolescent angst to utter insignificance.

But what exactly are we seeing? Directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix-Fine establish many beautiful, yet haunting, tableaus, begging the question as to how much of the film is a spontaneous recording of events, and how much is coached or staged. There are several emotional scenes that literally filet the viewer’s heart, but come across as being orchestrated to produce the greatest wallop of pathos. The way that these children can recount such horror without choking up or utterly breaking down comes across less as a testament to the human spirit and more a product of rehearsal, which further reinforces an already justified skepticism.

However, the nature of the documentary has been rapidly changing in our post-Michael Moore world. In my review of In The Shadow Of The Moon, I wrote about the joy of watching a documentary solely for its joy of exposition and lack of any formal agenda. My reasoning was that as more and more documentaries are used as polemic devices, the viewer is usually the one who loses. Watching a documentary becomes less an examination into an unknown part of our world, and more a reinforcement of our own deeply entrenched weltanschauung.

While I would be hard pressed to find somebody who actually supports the wholesale slaughter in Northern Uganda, War Dance serves the purpose of not only explaining a crisis that gets only the briefest mention on the evening news, it also applies a human face to the tragedy. While it would be easy to admonish the filmmakers for instances of brazen emotional manipulation (the scene where Mary visits her father’s jungle grave with her mother is a prime example), the savvy viewer will see this film for what it is, a crafty, visual editorial. Which I guess contradicts some of my earlier thoughts about the nature of documentary, I can live with this, since this is a subject matter I knew little about and felt less like a choir being sung to.

If the viewer feels emotionally throttled by the first half of the film, the second half is much more straightforward, as it chronicles the students as their practice for the competition intensifies. When they actually arrive in Kampala, they are beset by doubts that refuges from a war zone could compete with the much better financed and costumed students from the wealthier parts of the country. The actual scenes of the competition are wonderfully documented, showing the unabashed joy these students display in their singing and native dancing. The sight of Dominic sitting at his wooden xylophone, held together by nails and string, is one of pure transcendence. At that moment, there is no war, no tragedy, no thought of winning or losing, just the bliss of reaching his personal satori. The viewer cannot help but to share his enthusiasm.

Presentation
War Dance is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio that is anamorphically enhanced. The hi-def video is crystal clear, with contrasts clearly marked, especially during low-light nighttime footage. The DD 5.1 is for the most part overkill, except during the rehearsals and performances of the students, and then you’re really glad that it’s there. Subtitles are limited to English. These are present on the source print and aren’t removable.

Extras
The main focus of the extras on this disc are the deleted scenes. On one hand, taking them out definitely streamlined the film. On the other, these extras give the viewer some vital information, especially concerning the nature of the conflict between the government and the LRA. Most deleted scenes on a DVD are worth skipping, but these are definitely worth checking out.

There are also trailers for War Dance, as wells as other Thinkfilm releases.

The Bottom Line
War Dance is at once upsetting (both for what is being portrayed and how it is being presented) and uplifting. It helps to deepen the viewer’s understanding of a horrible conflict, as well the resiliency of the human spirit.