Gulu Stories

Description: An intimate portrait of life on the ground in Northern Uganda. Through camp fire stories, aid worker accounts and performances by local musicians, the film stitches together anecdotes that collectively relay the pain and suffering, but also the endurance, that epitomizes the story of the people of northern Uganda through this twenty-two years of war. The town of Gulu, a dusty outpost near the Sudanese border, is the principal haven for those who have been displaced by the civil war in Northern Uganda. A conflict which recently entered it's 22nd year, it has triggered a human rights and humanitarian catastrophe, and has now displaced close to 2 million people from their homes. In the last few years alone, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have killed and maimed thousands, kidnapped and conscripted upwards of 25,000 children, and have continually been accused of unspeakable atrocities. Anyone accused of "collaborating" with the government is punished swiftly and severely, often in ways meant to intimidate the rest of the population. This includes the cutting of noses, ears and lips of women caught away from the relative safety of the oppressive camps for IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) that they are forced to live in.