Do we really need another movie to tell us that children shouldn’t play with guns? War Witch begins promisingly enough with a young mother recounting her life story to her unborn child. Komona’s (Rachel Mwanza) prenatal narration picks up with a rebel soldier ordering the 12-year-old girl to kill her parents and become a child mercenary. Then Komona falls in love with Magician (Serge Kanyinda), an albino soldier. He introduces the girl to a hallucinogenic tree sap that persuades Komona that she sees ghosts of dead soldiers. Magician convinces the Komona to join his escape from the rebel camp. We’ve visited this child’s garden of hate too many times in the recent past, and images that once held a great deal of power have become old hat. War Witch’s contribution to depicting the perils of pubescent battle finds Komona using a razor blade as an IUD to ward off a rapist. (2012) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.