A portrait of South Sudanese returnees

The long title almost ruins the appetite, but the story raises some interesting questions on the relationship between the West and Africa, especially on education matters.

This is Hinterland-A Child Soldier’s Road back to South Sudan, a documentary film by a Dutch filmmaker revolving around the life of Sudanese returnees.

Currently screening at the Amsterdam documentary festival, the film interrogates the place of returnees who have imbibed Western ideals in the reconstruction of South Sudan.

For almost a decade, the director, Albert Elings, followed Kon Kelei, a former Sudanese child soldier in the Netherlands. Capturing both the painful and sweet moments of the boy, the documentary illustrates the diverse forces that have shaped Kon's thinking.

Kon fled Sudan more than a decade ago when he was recruited as a child soldier by rebels when the country was still fighting in a civil war. After a long trip, he ended up in the Harbour of Rotterdam where his life was quickly transformed.

Identity issues

As an asylum seeker in the camps of the Netherlands, he managed to go to school and graduated with a degree in international law that comes in handy after arrival back home.

First, he opens a school, later initiates a water project to quench the thirst of his people and their livestock.

Featured alongside Kon are other young South Sudanese refugees in the Netherlands.

Everything is not explicit, but the film alludes to the existing gap between Africa and the West. Through Kon's trip, you see two ways of life; on the first side where he lived while in exile, then the other side where his family lives, but also where he would have lived if he didn’t run away.

In a way, Hinterland-A Child Soldier’s Road back to South Sudan throws one back into the 60s and 70s when African student were sent to Europe and other places to study and once back, took care of their people.