Theatre of Violence

Ugandan lawyer Krispus Ayena has been assigned to the most prominent case of his career: defending the first former child soldier to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Dominic Ongwen was only 9 years old when he was abducted on his way to school, as were an estimated more than 20,000 other children, by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Intimidated and indoctrinated, he quickly learned to kill or be killed. Theatre of Violence follows Ayena and his team as they prepare for Ongwen’s defence - asking vital questions in an unfolding debate on what accountability entails when someone is both victim and perpetrator; and grappling with the underlying issue of what justice looks like when being conducted in an international court, far away from key cultural and historical context. The film asks - is the ICC imposing a new form of colonialism on Uganda?