Ex child-soldiers from Liberia act out war trauma in movie

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

CANNES, France (AFP) — Former child-soldiers from Liberia act out the horror of one of Africa's most murderous recent conflicts in a new film on children forced to go to war, showing this week at the Cannes film festival.

"Johnny Mad Dog" by French film-maker Jean-Stephane Sauvaire is based on a novel by Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala, also from a part of Africa where children are given guns.

The film was selected by festival organisers to screen at its parallel Un Certain Regard section grouping movies that are more original or less mainstream than those competing for its top film prize.

"Violence in childhood is a subject that fascinates me," Sauvaire told AFP in an interview. "There is always violence during childhood but it can degenerate and become...