No Place for a Rebel (2017)

Directed by: Ariadne Asimakopoulos, Maartje Wegdam | 76 minutes | documentary

The crowdfunded ‘No Place For a Rebel’ is an ambitious documentary, because it follows the inner struggle of a main character. Does that sound cryptic? If you explain it, it gets even more complicated. Ugandan Opono Opondo was kidnapped as a child by Joseph Kony’s rebel army. Sixteen years later, he has escaped from the army and returns home as a war commander. He must regain his place in civil society, but finds it difficult to find his way among the people he has fought against almost all his life – including his family. As Opono grapples with questions of guilt and responsibility, he gets the chance to join the Ugandan army. Will he return to the arena to fight against his former comrades?
This is the synopsis of this documentary, which borders on fiction in terms of dramatic structure. However, ‘No Place For a Rebel’ is not a static story in which people look back, but a developing life, which is followed closely.

Admiration can be expressed for this because it is basically very difficult, and although we do not know the country of Uganda from personal experience, the atmosphere of the street seems well-affected. The Ugandans seem to live in a brooding mix of fear and resignation, mainly dominated by daily worries. That atmosphere is dosed but allowed unfiltered on the image. The story of Kony’s rebels may be hard to understand – part guerilla, part terror, part cross-border conflict, but it doesn’t matter much. Maartje Wegdam (filmmaker and teacher at the Hogeschool Utrecht) and documentary maker Ariadne Asimakopoulos focus on ‘ordinary’ human processes, and clearly have the confidence of their subject, which makes Opono impress as a slightly wandering soul, and cooperates well in the densification and dramatization. . The latter is very nice, by the way. ‘No Place for A Rebel’ looks especially authentic; in doing so, the makers cultivate a greater understanding of the complicated lives of such Africans.