We were rebels
Documentary, 92 min
Dir: Katharina von Schroeder, Florian Schewe
Prod: Perfect Shot Films / ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel
DP: Florian Schewe, Katharina von Schroeder
Sound: Katharina von Schroeder
Editor: André Nier
Language: English, Dinka, Arabic
Subtitles: English, German
Year of completion: 2014
The documentary film WE WERE REBELS tells the story of Agel, a former child soldier who returns to South Sudan to help build up his country. The film accompanies him over a period of two years – from South Sudan gaining its independence in 2011 to the renewed outbreak of civil war in December 2013.
As captain of the national basketball team of South Sudan – the youngest country in the world – Agel coaches the team through their very first international match against Uganda. The conflicts within the team bear a striking resemblance to the political problems festering across the country.
An injury ends up forcing Agel to leave the basketball team, and he goes on to form an NGO that provides the country’s most remote areas with clean drinking water. His journeys give him time to reflect on his country – on how it was, how it is, and how he hopes it will be one day. As a child soldier, Agel had to kill and also lost almost all of his male relatives. Later he managed to flee via Kenya to Australia, where he became a professional basketball player and returned to South Sudan a free man.
Today, just two years after gaining its independence, the world’s youngest nation is once again teetering on the edge of a precipice: More than half a million people are fleeing the country, and Agel is fighting as a soldier once again.
Best Documentary
Brooklyn Film Festival 2015
Link: Brooklyn Film Festival
Nominated for the
German Documentary Film Award 2015 / Deutscher Dokumentarfilmpreis 2015
Link: German Documentary Film Award
Grand Prize of the jury
Festival International du Film de Droits de l'homme 2016
Link: FIFDH
Grand Prix
International Human Rights Film Festival Guadeloupe 2016
Link: Human Rights Festival Guadeloupe
Award for Historical Film
AGON Film Festival, Athens, Greece 2016
Link: Agon Film Festival
Festivals:
Document International Human Rights Film Festival, Glasgow, Scotland
Oct, 20 - 23, 2016
Link: Document Film Festival
AGON Film Festival, Athens, Greece
Oct, 17 - 23, 2016
Link: Agon Film Festival
Congo International Film Festival, Goma, DR Congo
July 2 - 9, 2016
Link: CIFF
Juba Film Festival, South Sudan
July 4 - 7, 2016
Link: Juba Film Festival
Festival International du Film de Droits de l'homme de Paris, France
April 5 - 19, 2016
Link: Festival Droits de l'homme
Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Nairobi, Kenia
Nov 18th, 2015
Films from the South Festival, Oslo, Norway
Oct 8 - 18, 2015
Link: Film far Sør
Budapest International Documentary Festival, Hungary
Sep 23 - 27, 2015
Link: BIDF
Sole Luna Treviso Doc Film Festival, Italy
International Competition
Sep 14 - 20, 2015
Link: Treviso Doc Film Festival
Ciné Droit Libre, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Sep 14 - 19, 2015
Link: Goethe Institut Abidjan
Brooklyn Film Festival, New York, USA
Input TV - television in the public interest, Tokyo, Japan
May 11 - 14, 2015
Nashville Film Festival, USA
April 16 - 25, 2015
Days of European Film, Prague, Czech Republic
April 16, 2015
Human Rights Human Wrongs Documentary Film Festival, Oslo, Norway
Feb 10 - 15, 2015
DocPoint, Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, Helsinki, Finland
Jan 27- Feb 1st, 2015
Link: DocPoint Helsinki
Escales Documentaires de Libreville, Libreville, Gabon
December 1-7, 2014
Link: Escales Documentaires de Libreville
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), The Netherlands
November 19-30, 2014
Link: IDFA
DOK Leipzig - Leipzig Screenings, Germany
October 27th, 2014
Link: Leipzig Screening
Montreal World Film Festival, Canada
August 21 - Sep 1, 2014
iREP Monthly Documentary Film Screening, Lagos, Nigeria
August 23rd, 2014
Link: iREP
Ecrans Noirs, Yaoundé, Cameroon
July 19 - 26, 2014
Link: Ecrans Noirs
Rwanda Film Festival, Kigali, Rwanda
Screening: July 13th, 2014
Link: Rwanda Film Festival
International Documentary Film Festival Munich, Germany
Screening: May 8 & 11, 2014
Link: DOK.fest
Screenings:
Goethe Institut Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
Nov 12, 2015
Link: Goethe Institut Addis Abeba
23. Fernsehworkshop Entwicklungspolitik,
Televison Workshop Development Politics, Frankfurt, Germany
June 11-14, 2015
Link: Fernsehworkshop
28th Sudan and South Sudan Conference, Germany
June 10-12, 2015
Link: Sudan Forum
The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London
The London Confernce 2015
June 1-2, 2015
Link: Chatham House
Essenheimer Kunstverein, Germany
May 28th, 2015
Link: Essenheimer Kunstverein
Frontline Club, London
April 10th, 2015
Link: Frontline Club
LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science
December 2014
Link: Africa at LSE
Humanitarian Congress Berlin, Germany
October 9th, 2014, 8 pm at "Filmtheater am Friedrichshain"
Link: Humanitarian Congress Berlin
Berlin premiere:
June 25th, 2014, 6 pm at "Filmtheater am Friedrichshain"
TV:
German TV:
July 14th, 2014 on ZDF: "Wir waren Rebellen - Krieg und Frieden im Südsudan"
Link: Wir waren Rebellen - ZDF
Via satellite throughout Africa:
DStv Africa: July 6th, 2015
Link: AFRIDOCS on DStv
Worldwide:
BBC WORLD - Storyville Global, May 27-28th, 2017
