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Film: The Silent Army
Release date: 6th December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Jean Van de Velde
Starring: Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten, Jacqueline Blom
Genre: Action/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Netherlands
According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, up to half of the world's child soldiers are based in Africa. In the end titles of the film Blood Diamond (2006) it is claimed that "there are still 200,000 child soldiers in Africa,” so it’s little surprise director Jean Van De Velde (All Stars, Wild Romance) felt the need to remind us of their plight with his latest film, The Silent Army.
Eduard is a relatively successful restaurant owner in an eastern African country who has his world turned upside down with the sudden death of his wife. Running a business and raising his 9-year-old son all by himself fast becomes a struggle, not helped when Thomas’s best friend Abu disappears with other children after a night raid by the rebel army.
Desperate to have his buddy back, Thomas persuades his father to search for Abu, who proceeds to a refugee camp in the middle of the conflict-infested area for clues to the child’s disappearance.
Meanwhile, Abu is undergoing harsh child solider training, watched over by former Minister of Defence Michel Obeke. Eduard and Abu’s paths inevitably meet after a dangerous search through the jungle, when the failing father finally manages to reach the rebels camp, hoping his tenuous friendship with Obeke may offer some kind of hope for Abu and the other children…
Halfway through proceedings, main protagonist Eduardo tries to convince a photographer to join him in the search for Abu, hoping the child’s plight is enough to secure a helping hand and hard evidence of such atrocities. “There are a lot of good stories here,” mumbles the photographer before leaving, forgetting to add “this isn’t one of them,” a line no doubt spoken by the viewer as soon as the credits begin to roll.
If this review reflected the film it’s based upon then there would be no punctuation whatsoever, especially full stops; each scene in The Silent Army has barely enough time to be digested before another is rammed down the viewer’s throat so forcibly. Eduard’s restaurant should really be a fast-food takeaway, selling distasteful nuggets of child abuse with a secret recipe that everyone is familiar with.
It’s hard to believe how director Jean Van De Velde managed to fabricate just such a movie, boasting a scant few points in its favour: an innocent girl picking up a grenade; the impressively tense if not familiar assembly-of-a-gun challenge; a brilliantly nerve-racking phone conversation with an automated receiver; Abu proudly reclaiming his football boot; and the concluding showdown involving poison, a young child and an explosive resolution. It’s also short on running time (the biggest blessing of all), an odd feat considering its subject matter.
The first thing to let The Silent Army down is its failure to create a believable setting in such an impossible place. The location itself is obviously physically possible, you only have to watch the news to realise such horrors exist, but credibility within the context of the story is sadly lacking. Eduard’s motivations and actions should drive the story, yet his reasons to search for Abu are unclear, other than his son Thomas having a massive strop if he doesn’t. Marco Borsato is no Schwarzenegger, he’s a chef, and The Silent Army is certainly no Commando, even if, at times, it seemingly wishes it was.
Van De Velde also seems determined to clear away any clutter, dispensing of anything that doesn’t serve to move the story along. This, in theory, is a good thing, but concentrating solely on set pieces to create plot devices, he has instead masterminded a ninety minute pop video (without the musical score), giving little information or details to bring the audience on board, especially when it comes to empathy. The script drifts too far in one direction, giving the viewer little time or reason to care about anything they are witnessing. It’s true that boredom won’t be an issue here, but such a ho-hum, seen it all before approach will hardly invite praise either.
The director neglects his characters by refusing to allow them time to develop. Instead, he seems happier to highlight the problems faced by children living in Africa with bloody violence. But by showing brutal scenes time and time again, the whole thing becomes gimmicky and somehow more fantastical – the more you see, the less you care. The scenes aren't even all that original, but nothing on show here is. Proof is in the pudding, served deliciously by the pantomime villain Michel Obeke, more of a bully than an evil dictator, eventually hinting at some kind of nastiness in the finale, but too little too late.
The Silent Army offers rich, authentic-looking settings and some striking visuals; however, gaping plot-holes and cartoonish characters soon frustrate, so viewers expecting anything other than volatile scenes of children being harmed will be sorely disappointed. DW
The young Thomas seeks and gains support from his friend Abu, son of Mafillu, one of the female black staff members in the restaurant.
One day Abu disappears suddenly together with at least ten other children, after a nightly and violent raid of his village by the rebel army.
Young Thomas cannot be consoled. He wants Abu back, and Eduard, who feels he is failing as a father, decides to try to find Abu.
While Eduard proceeds to an IDP camp in the middle of the conflict-infested area to gather information about the possible whereabouts of Abu and the other abducted children, Abu himself is undergoing harsh child soldier training in the rebel army of Michel Obeke, formerly Minister of Defence.
Eduard persists in his plight towards finding and saving his son’s friend, and after a dangerous search through the jungle, he manages to reach Michel Obeke’s camp.
Film: The Silent Army
Release date: 6th December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Jean Van de Velde
Starring: Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten, Jacqueline Blom
Genre: Action/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Netherlands
Film: The Silent Army
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Jean Van de Velde
Starring: Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten, Jacqueline Blom
Genre: Action/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: Cinema
Country: Netherlands
In the heart of the African jungle, an ever-growing army of child-soldiers are on the rampage. As the trail of slaughter grows, it’s up to our hero to rescue the brain-washed children and put an end to the bloodshed.
We begin by following Abu, a child who is dragged from his home by The Holy Army and quickly indoctrinated to a life of militaristic murder. The leader of the army insists that the children call him Daddy, and isn’t above forcing his disciples to kill their own parents or provide him with sexual pleasure. Soon Abu is helping to plant land-mines, massacre other villages, and kill his friends.
In the meantime, Eduard Zuiderwijk, a white cook, is trying to recover from the death of his wife. When his son begins investigating the loss of his missing friend, Abu, the two begin a journey to find him. This takes them to a refugee camp where Eduard finally decides to go and find the rebel army himself and bargain for Abu’s release.
Deep in the mountains, the rebel-leader has arranged to pick up more ammunition, and soon the scene is set for a gun-blazing, action-packed finale which will test the children’s loyalty to their new ‘Daddy’…
The first thing that strikes you about The Silent Army is its pacing. The first half-hour is like watching a film in fast-forward. The average shot is less than ten seconds long, which makes it difficult to be bored, but even harder to care. Eduard’s wife is killed in a car-crash six minutes into the film, by the half hour mark Abu’s entire family are dead, Eduard has travelled half way across Africa and the audience are left struggling to keep up. It could be argued that the film is placing us in the children’s mind-frame. The situation these children are put in is illogical, frenzied and horrid. But cinematically this pacing is un-engaging. We cannot be expected to mourn the passing of a character who we have barely been introduced to. Characters need to earn our sympathy, our respect. In the absence of any real characterisation, or dramatic tension, all we are left with is a series of war-crime re-enactments, filmed with all the frantic editing and cold precision of a music video.
When the film finally does begin to slow-down, it simply falls apart. Ignoring the glaring plot-holes, self-important lecturing characters are given no emotional justification for their actions. It is never explained, why Eduard decides to take on an army of dangerous gun-touting rebels, or, for that matter what it is that the rebels are hoping to achieve. The leader, Michael Obeke, seems aimless and pantomimic. The female aids-worker we meet at the midway point serves no real dramatic purpose - by the end it never becomes clear what the film is actually trying to achieve.
The finale finds our hero take on the guise of the ‘Hollywood vigilante’, using weaponry to blow his enemies to pieces, and ends with a credit sequence urging us to do our bit to help the plight of real child-soldiers. Yet the film makes every effort to tell us that charity, good-will and ‘white moral-superiority’ are not the answers. The only thing that seems to work is a semi-automatic and a crate of grenades.
What we are left with is a sense of bewilderment. The only thing that achieves any semblance of emotional response is the violence against children. What The Silent Army doesn’t realise is that the reason why films like City Of God are so effective is because we are allowed time to get to know the victims of such violence. Here violence is a means to an end. We have no sense of what has been lost. We are left with a sub-standard action movie in which the answers to all of life’s problems are found at the end of a white-man’s gun.
An exploitative action movie that uses the pain of others to hide its own vacuous nature. AC
The young Thomas seeks and gains support from his friend Abu, son of Mafillu, one of the female black staff members in the restaurant.
One day Abu disappears suddenly together with at least ten other children, after a nightly and violent raid of his village by the rebel army.
Young Thomas cannot be consoled. He wants Abu back, and Eduard, who feels he is failing as a father, decides to try to find Abu.
While Eduard proceeds to an IDP camp in the middle of the conflict-infested area to gather information about the possible whereabouts of Abu and the other abducted children, Abu himself is undergoing harsh child soldier training in the rebel army of Michel Obeke, formerly Minister of Defence.
Eduard persists in his plight towards finding and saving his son’s friend, and after a dangerous search through the jungle, he manages to reach Michel Obeke’s camp.
Film: The Silent Army
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Jean Van de Velde
Starring: Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten, Jacqueline Blom
Genre: Action/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: Cinema
Country: Netherlands
