Komona (Rachel Mwanza) lives in a small village in sub-Sahara Africa. One day heavily armed members of a rebel army storm in and kidnap some of the children to turn into soldiers in their fight against the government. In a horrific scene 12-year-old Komona is ordered to shoot her parents rather than watch them suffer miserably by being hacked to death with a machete; after her father tells her to do as she is told, she kills them.

Later, Komona and the other orphaned boys and girls are handed AK-47s and told, "Respect your guns. They are your mother and father." As part of their initiation into this band of killers led by a warlord known as the Great Tiger (Mizinga Mwinga), the children are beaten and starved. Komona is befriended by the Magician (Serge Kanyinda), an albino boy, who protects her and sneaks her food.

The new soldiers are regularly drugged with the sap from a jungle tree which they call "magic milk." Komona discovers that she is able to see the ghosts of the dead, including her parents. When she then miraculously survives an attack by government soldiers, the Great Tiger names her "a war witch," recognizing her supernatural abilities might be used to his advantage.

Komona and Magician manage to escape from the prison of violence and inhumanity of the rebel soldiers. In a playful sequence, he proposes and she tells him that her father said she must tell any suitor to first get her a white rooster. This proves to be quite a challenge! But they do marry and find peaceful relief when Magician's Uncle (Ralph Prosper) takes them in. But the Great Tiger finds them again and Komona is subjected to some more pain and suffering.

Kim Nguyan directs this astonishing drama about the unusual courage and resiliency of this African girl who survives one nightmare after another. During the last two decades more than 30,000 African children have been kidnapped from their families and thrown into grueling guerilla warfare. The moral diminishment of kids forced to murder civilians, rape women and young girls, and maim innocent bystanders is incalculable. One child soldier who escaped said: "This war has burned a hole in my soul and changed me forever."


Special features on the DVD include story behind the scene with Kim; Academy Award promo.