Guus Bosman

The movie opens with a beautiful nature shot of a river in Sri Lanka, and the camera moves to two heavily armed girls of around 18 years old. They are soldiers in the Tamil Tigers rebel army.

The personal story of the girls shows why they choose to join the rebels at the age of 11 after attacks by the military on their village. The father of one the girls is killed in an air raid as is told in moving interviews with the girl's mother. The mother hasn't seen her daughter in year since the girls now live and train in a rebel controlled area. In conversations with the two girls it becomes clear that the girls are trained to become suicide bombers, who at one point will strap a mine to their body to attack 'high value targets'.

The film is directed by Beate Arnestad and produced by Morten Daae. It is amazing how much access the filmmakers had to these two girls, and they did a great job providing context to their story and the civil war that's going on in Sri Lanka. The audience gets a bit of an understanding of why and how people can become ready to kill themselves for a Leader; the movie also shows some of the tragic results these suicide attacks have on the civilian population. When I searched for more information on the civil war there I found a newspaper article that just today, Sunday April 6th, a suicide bomber killed 12 people at the start of a marathon in Sri Lanka.

An eye opening film; one of the best I've seen on the festival this year. I'm now sitting in the Armory, waiting for the results of the juries decisions and hoping to be able to buy tickets for the winning movies.