Emmanuel Jal was taken from his family, became a child soldier and survived a near-drowning during Sudan’s prolonged civil war. Now he’s an international rap star with the self-titled album War Child and he raps about peace, constantly telling his story on news networks, at the UN, as a spokesperson for Amnesty International, and most often to schoolchildren. But how did a child of war become a man of peace?

In his powerful directorial debut, Chrobog uses newly-discovered footage of Emmanuel’s tragic youth to provide critical background. We see him as a precocious pre-teen living in refugee camps, where he spoke for his orphaned comrades and UN officials asked for him by name. Then, Emmanuel was forced to become a child soldier in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. When he and a small group of boys escaped, they nearly starved to death before Emma McHugh Leer, a British aid worker, rescued them and smuggled Emmanuel to Kenya.

When Emmanuel travels back to Sudan to reconnect with his past, including his beloved grandmother and his emotionally vacant father, we see firsthand why he avoids the painful details of abandonment and the moral pain of recalling his violence-filled childhood.

Using Emmanuel’s honed staccato rhythm, WAR CHILD’s music powers his story and shows us his transformation.  Despite the horrors he’s lived through, he brings a message of peace to the world.


—Patricia Finneran