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IMDbPro

War Dance

  • 2007
  • PG-13
  • 1h 45m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
War Dance (2007)
Theatrical Trailer from Think Film, Inc
Play trailer2:31
7 Videos
12 Photos
DocumentaryMusicWar

Three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.Three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.Three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.

  • Directors
    • Sean Fine
    • Andrea Nix
  • Writers
    • Sean Fine
    • Andrea Nix
  • Stars
    • Dominic
    • Nancy
    • Rose
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.7/10
    1.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Sean Fine
      • Andrea Nix
    • Writers
      • Sean Fine
      • Andrea Nix
    • Stars
      • Dominic
      • Nancy
      • Rose
    • 19User reviews
    • 43Critic reviews
    • 68Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 10 wins & 4 nominations total

    Videos7

    War Dance
    Trailer 2:31
    War Dance
    War Dance
    Clip 1:57
    War Dance
    War Dance
    Clip 1:57
    War Dance
    War Dance
    Clip 2:04
    War Dance
    War Dance
    Clip 1:46
    War Dance
    War/Dance: Clip 2
    Clip 1:47
    War/Dance: Clip 2
    War/Dance: Clip 3
    Clip 1:57
    War/Dance: Clip 3

    Photos12

    View Poster
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    + 7
    View Poster

    Top cast10

    Edit
    Dominic
    • Self
    Nancy
    • Self
    Rose
    • Self
    Jane Adong
    • Self
    Kitara Coldwell
    • Self
    Joshua Kyallo
    • Self
    Members of Acholi Tribe
    • Themselves
    Janani Okot
    • Self
    Jolly Okot
    • Self
    Stephen Rwangyezi
    • Self
    • Directors
      • Sean Fine
      • Andrea Nix
    • Writers
      • Sean Fine
      • Andrea Nix
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews19

    7.71.2K
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    Featured reviews

    10WFStephens

    One of the finest documentaries of the last decade

    This is certainly one of the finest documentaries we have ever seen. It ranks with Hoop Dreams and Roger & Me. The cinematography is outstanding, and the film blends the horrific stories of three child victims of war with youthful hope for the future through music. The directors manage to capture the beautiful landscape of Uganda's war-torn north while also showing how ravaged both the countryside and families have been during the last decades. The music that propels the film forward was also wonderful and unique to Western ears.

    This is the only time I have ever left the theater and immediately called friends to tell them to go see a film. All I can say is, Go see this film!
    10whlrguy

    The Strength of the Spirit

    I was fortunate to see this movie on a promotional pass. Fortunate, as I may have passed up this very moving film. I have seen the documentaries up for an Academy Award this year and this by far surpasses them. It has inspired me. For many, many years Uganda has been at war with rebels, a conflict that I had heard about in the past and thought was long over. I had heard in my youth, how children's families were killed and they were kidnapped, the boys to become soldiers in the rebellion and the girls sex slaves. I was horrified to hear that it is still currently going on. This is a story of a group of these children from Patongo who survived. Some saved from being rebels and some … not so lucky, being forced to kill their own at gunpoint. Sounds dismal and bleak, but this is a story of Hope, Redemption, Pride and Perseverance. With beautiful cinematography and the story of song, music and dance these children are the very image of Life and the strength of the Spirit. The documentary focuses on three students in the Patongo refugee camp, Rose, Dominic, and Nancy, as they prepare for their first National Music Competition in which over 20,000 schools will be competing. They tell their story of survival and trauma of the brutally violent effects of the rebellion. Haunting and disturbing, powerful and most important uplifting, this is the finest definition of Courage. A must see film.
    10hannah-dawson

    A comment on the documentary

    I thought that this movie was truly amazing and so eye opening! I was in shock when i saw this because though I knew that there was a war going on, i didn't realize how bad it really was. I think that this movie was wonderfully made and that they deserved that Oscar. I also think that the three main kids (Dominic, Rose and Nancy) were such nice kids and happy kids even though they had to go through all that. I got to meet Dominic and he is a truly wonderful kid. He is so nice and doing really well.

    Also, in case anyone wanted to donate money to AMREF (one of the sponsor's for the film) you can go on their website, www.amref.org and then they tell you how to donate there.
    10groggo

    Heartbreaking Yet Uplifting

    This superb documentary shows Acholi children from one village in the war zones of northern Uganda, who diligently prepare for the national musical and cultural competition in far-off and far-safer Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

    While they try hard to succeed, they are beset by the constant danger of abduction at the hands of the Lord's Resistance Army (MRA), which is led by a religious fanatic (and part-time mystic and fortune-teller) named Joseph Kony, who started an uprising against the Ugandan army in 1986, pledging to turn the country into a theocracy with a constitution loosely based on the Ten Commandments.

    Kony's army has abducted more than 30,000 children in northern Uganda and forced them to be soldiers and killers of their own tribal members. More than 200,000 children in northern Uganda have been orphaned because their parents were murdered. The LRA's 20-year war against the central government's Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF), has left at least two million Ugandans displaced from their homes. Meanwhile, even in so-called 'safe camps,' where countless thousands live amid squalor and disease and depend on the United Nations food program, the UPDF still doesn't provide adequate protection.

    It is wonderful to watch these determined children turn on their smiles and their brilliant talents as they prepare for, and participate in, the national competition. When they arrive in Kampala (southern Uganda, where no warfare takes place), they are overwhelmed to see skyscrapers; they had never seen buildings before.

    Writers/directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix have done a great job of conveying the wondrous dreams of young people, along with the terrible ordeals they face in a savage, senseless war that sees no end. One youth, in a stunning story of barbarism, recounts how he was ordered to butcher three farmers with a hoe, and if he looked away at any time, he himself would have been murdered. Such is the barbarism that exists in northern Uganda today, much of it all but unknown to us in the West.

    To make matters worse, there is blatant corruption in the central government itself, which enacted legislation in 2005 that will allow the corrupt lowlife Yoweri Musevini (elected in 1986) to be president-for-life. There are strong hints that he and Kony have an 'arrangement' to continue the war because it advances both of their 'causes,' although those 'causes' are not always readily apparent. Neither of these two lunatics appears to give a damn about the terrible pain they have inflicted on their own people.

    Another equally powerful documentary on this same subject is 'The Other Side of the Country' (2006), by Quebec filmmaker Catherine Hebert. This very disturbing film concentrates more on the older (and even aged) northern Ugandans who are displaced from their homes by war and forced to live out their lives in teeming, treacherous 'relocation' camps, which are really nothing more than disease-infested examples of the worst kinds of slums.
    10bkoritz

    Amazing documentary

    I saw War Dance when it was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. I shed a lot of tears and was awed at the resiliency of these children. Besides the devastating aspects of the film, it was also uplifting and brought a smile to my face. Simple things that opportune individuals take for granted made these children so happy. The cinematography was beautiful and symbolic. The children were lovable. Everyone should see this film as it opens our eyes to what others suffer and overcome. It helped me to realize how lucky I was to live in America and have the life that I have. The film also builds awareness and gives the viewer information on how they can help out with situation in northern Uganda.

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    Related interests

    Dziga Vertov in Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
    Documentary
    Prince and Apollonia Kotero in Purple Rain (1984)
    Music
    Band of Brothers (2001)
    War

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Quotes

      Nancy: When I dance my problems vanish. The camp is gone. I can feel the wind. I can feel the fresh air. I am free and I can feel my home.

    • Connections
      Featured in The 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 25, 2008 (Taiwan)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official site
      • Official site (Japan)
    • Languages
      • Acholi
      • English
    • Also known as
      • War/Dance
    • Filming locations
      • Kampala, Uganda
    • Production companies
      • Rogues Harbor Studios
      • Fine Films (II)
      • Shine Global
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $115,210
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $15,471
      • Nov 11, 2007
    • Gross worldwide
      • $137,977
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 45m(105 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

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