One of the films screening this week at the Middle East International Film Festival is War Child, which tells the story of a former child soldier in the Sudanese civil war between the country's largely Christian south and Muslim north. The film's director, Karim Chrobog, is also a former resident of Dubai. The film shows tonight at 9.30pm at Cinestar at Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi.
He was recruited, as tens of thousands of other children were, to fight in the Sudan People's Liberation Army. These kids ended up being recruited and trained in refugee camps in Ethiopia - these were the famous "Lost Boys" who trekked between Ethiopia and Sudan. A large contingent walked back into Sudan to participate in the war. Emmanuel got lucky. He went on this long journey, barely survived and ended in this SPLA camp. He was probably between seven and nine. He arrived carrying an AK 47 that was taller than he was, and he ran into Emma McCune, an aid worker.
She essentially adopted him. She smuggled him in a United Nations supply plane from Sudan into Kenya. In Nairobi she tried to get him into school and tried to give him a more stable life. Then, very tragically, Emma died in a car crash in Nairobi. Emmanuel ended up in the slums. Through the intervention of Emma's mother, he started bouncing back. He found refuge in a church in Nairobi. That's where he found his musical talent - in gospel and church music. Then he did one song that catapulted him on to the radar of the Nairobi music scene. He did a collaborative CD with a musician from the north of Sudan and that made him really famous - because a former child soldier was making music with his enemy.
The Darfur crisis is another embodiment of a large crisis that Sudan has always faced. It's a very large country that is broken into hundreds of tribes. It has areas that are extremely resource rich. And it also has the religious divisions between the northern part, which is Arab Muslim, and the southern part, which is largely Christian. Darfur, on the other hand, is in the western part of the Sudan, and the division there is between African Muslims and Arab Muslims. The current conflict is very much about natural resources as well. Every reason for conflict that has ever existed exists in Sudan.
It's of course very complicated. There's a large sense of disillusionment, because people he knows are living in very dire situations. He had to survive this war and now he's trying to survive in the modern world. He's trying to be a musician. But he is extremely dedicated to his home. All the income he generates goes back home. He's dedicated to the idea of educating kids and former child solders. He supports over a dozen children himself by paying their tuition and their living expenses. He says, "The only reason I survived is to tell my story."
This film has origins in Dubai, actually. I was living in Dubai and working with CERT, which is part of the Ministry of Education, on a feature film on the story of Ibn Battuta (the great 14th century Moroccan explorer). I was in the Madinat Jumeirah with a journalist friend of mine during a brainstorming session, and we thought it would be interesting to do a series on the globalisation of music. And we went about researching artists that we thought could be very compelling figures. And one of the artists we discovered was Emmanuel Jal. He was so compelling that we shelved the series and went on to do this documentary.
I have tremendous appreciation for what's happening in the Gulf, but I wish there was less focus on shopping malls and more on culture. When I read that $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) is being invested into Hollywood, I wonder why that isn't being invested in the Middle East, to build a film infrastructure here. Ibn Battuta is a compelling Middle Eastern hero, but the only tribute that stands to him is a shopping mall. The mall brings a lot of tourism, but what's next? I'm still working on that.
