We Were Rebels

This award-winning film tells the story of Agel, a former child soldier who returns to South Sudan to help build up his country. The filmmakers accompany 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. Agel coaches the national basketball team of South Sudan through its first international match against Uganda. The conflicts within the team bear a striking resemblance to the political problems festering across the country. After being injured, Agel 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 the fate of his country. As a child soldier, Agel had to kill and also lost almost all of his male relatives. Later he managed to flee and returned to South Sudan a free man. Today, 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.