“It’s very easy to create a killing machine. Just imagine. You’re seven years old and taken away from your family . . . your parents are killed in front of you or you’re forced to kill somebody. Through all that you’re beaten . . . then you’re given a gun and you’re told, ‘This gun is your life.’” – Grace Akallo

When we usually speak about child soldiers, we rarely realize that many of them are girls. This little-known reality is underscored by the gripping personal accounts of Grace Akallo, Milly Auma, and Lucy Lanyero in Raymonde Provencher’s riveting, visually stunning film. As adults seeking to rebuild their lives, they are three among thousands of young girls violently abducted from Ugandan villages by the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel force that trained kidnapped girls to fight and kill, often forcing them into child-bearing unions with their captors. Back in their village and internationally, these survivors of a shattered past help women ex-rebels find a voice in the world, acceptance at home, and forgiveness from one another. And joining forces with victims of other conflicts, they are active in a global campaign, envisioning a more just world where their own and all children are no longer tools of war.

With Empowering Hands (EH), the association they founded to share their experiences and consolidate their efforts, they are working with children who have been affected by war to help them readjust once they return to their families. These women are determined: the victims’ voices must be heard and the war in Uganda must be stopped. The future of an entire sacrificed generation depends on it. Through moving first-hand accounts, CHILD SOLDIERS provides a gripping portrayal of a generation shattered by violence and war. Interspersing personal accounts with scenes from daily life, the documentary also uses a unique visual and sound treatment that conjures up the stifled echoes of a repressed past.