The Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) is set to make a feature film showcasing the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in northern Uganda and how the rebels were defeated and flashed out of the country.
According to UPDF 4th division public relations officer, Major Ceaser Olweny, shooting of the film titled, ‘The Devils Chest’ starts next Monday, January 9 in Gulu district.
The film will be acted in Opaka forest in Koro sub-county, Omoro district and Abera forest in Gulu district. The forests belong to National Forestry Authority (NFA). Olweny says the film will also be used as a bravery-training tool for new recruits in the army.
“This war took so long, we need a record. For those who are born during the war, they have seen, but there are those who have not known how hectic this war was. You will get to know [all this] in this film. For our brothers and sisters who have ever ‘tasted’ it, it will be a very good reminder to the rest of the people but above all to keep the history living. It will also help us for training purposes.
Sometimes when you watch these films acted by Americans all the time, you also watch the tactics they have displayed in the film. So for us we also need this in case of anything we shall be in a better position to fight an insurgence operation better than what we fought in this part of the country,” Olweny said.
Olweny declined to disclose the main actors in the film that will run for more than an hour – saying it will feature more than 50 soldiers. He says some heavy military equipment based in the division will be driven to the sites of the recording and fired with blunt ammunition.
Production of the film will be co-funded by New Movie Production, a Ugandan movie-making firm based in Kampala. Hassan Mageye is the executive director of New Movie Production and a Uganda Film Festival 2016 award winner. He says he will direct the movie alongside other accredited movie makers.
Mageye says that the movie will showcase “the sufferings of women, children and men in the hands of the rebel group led by International Criminal Court indicted guerrilla leader Joseph Kony.”
It is unclear how much will be spent on producing the movie but Major Olweny says it will partly be funded by the military. He urged members of the public around the forest locations not to panic upon hearing military weapons being fired.
“We shall also have the same UPDF soldiers dressed like the LRA because the film is covering the war we had with the LRA. So we need some soldiers dressed like the LRA living in those areas. Now it is our humble appeal to the public that if you come across these groups I have mentioned, don’t be scared.
These are UPDF doing the film and we shall not take more than 10 days in these areas and we shall also erect some structures, we shall have some shootings in the areas. Whenever you hear of some shootings in these areas don’t just run anyhow – thinking there’s renewed rebel activity in these areas, no. That will be the UPDF conducting this exercise.”
The LRA insurgency in northern Uganda began in 1987 and gained notoriety for maiming, raping women, killing and abductions of women and children. The group displaced an estimated 1.5 million people before they were flushed out to South Sudan and the jungles of Democratic Republic of Congo in 2005.