The Devil Came on Horseback

"The Devil Came on Horseback" (2007): Documentary. This is an up close and personal look at the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, including those dead, tortured and raped, those who did it, those who supported it, and those who watched it happen. This is a sad, frustrating, and grisly document made by a man who sort of "stumbled onto" his dedication to help bring this ongoing issue into harsh international light. It's not that this hasn't happened before – it has. But here it is again, and this documentary doesn't give you the "Abstract Out" some do. One man rolled up his sleeves and caused this horror to be known to the world. I suggest you see it. You won't like it, but you'll also know you live an easy and safe life by comparison, and if you can, you might share some of your comfort with someone who has none.

In the early 2000s, a cease fire was declared between two warring factions in Sudan (the Arab Muslims in the north and the non-Arabs in the south), effectively bringing to an end the bloody civil war that had ripped that nation apart for over two decades (though the peace treaty itself was not officially signed until 2005). Former Marine Captain Brian Steidle went to the country as part of a team sponsored by the African Union to help monitor the cease fire. However, while he was there, a new conflict broke out, this time in Darfur, the far western region of Sudan that is largely inhabited by tribal blacks. As soon as the cease fire was in place, militias and death squads, backed by the Arab government in Khartoum, began a well-coordinated and systematic campaign to brutally terrorize and slaughter the inhabitants of that region. Whole villages and refugee camps were wiped out, their people mowed down, burned alive or left to die of starvation, all for being black. Steidle - sans weapons and armed only with a still camera, a video recorder, a great deal of personal courage and a spirit of righteous indignation - spent much of that time traveling through the countryside compiling a photographic account of the atrocities. "The Devil Came on Horseback" is that account.

With this work, filmmakers Ricki Stren and Anne Sundberg clearly hope to rouse the outside world from its lethargy regarding this tragedy. Steidle's heartbreaking and compelling eyewitness testimony to Man's-inhumanity-to-Man is placed in direct opposition to the lip-service platitudes and hollow assurances he receives from the fiddle-playing leaders in the Bush administration and the U.N. when he confronts them with the evidence. First, there is the resistance on the part of the world to declare that what was happening in Darfur is a "genocide" at all - then, after the admission, an intransigent refusal to step in and take any kind of action to halt the holocaust. Perhaps the most heartrending moments come from interviews with survivors living in refugee camps in neighboring Chad, and from reflective comments made by Steidle himself as he struggles with the enormity of what he's seen and experienced and battles against the frustrating reluctance on the part of those who could actually do something to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING.

After all the horrors it shows us, after all the inspiring images of one caring man making a difference in the world, the movie turns the spotlight directly onto the viewers, challenging them to take an active part in helping to end this human tragedy. Thus, the movie concludes with a list of websites and telephone numbers where all concerned people can go to find out more about what they themselves can do to have an impact. It's a challenge well worth taking up.

This amazing film screened at the SXSW Film Festival and was extremely well-received. The film is a remarkable picture of the tragedy that is unfolding in Africa and being ignored by both America and the rest of the world. The story is told thru the eyes of former American Marine Captain, turned international monitor, Brian Steidle. Steidle is the reluctant hero drawn into the events of Darfur almost by accident. As his eyes are opened to the ugliness of what is happening in Darfur he opens our eyes as well.

The photographs are amazing and nightmarish. The tragic message is that we haven't learned from the Holocaust and more recently Rwanda is also clear and deeply haunting. This film is significantly better made than the somewhat amateurish film, although still interesting and informative, Darfur Diaries. It is filmed with both heart and skill. Steidle, who has also written a book by the same name, is the perfect guide to draw us out of our apathy and into the heart of this deep unfolding tragedy. His palpable feeling of anger and helplessness as he watches genocide is palpable and heart-breaking.

The film is also an indictment of the failure of the US and other Western governments to act to address this humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding now for 4 years. The U.S. has called these events "genocide," but has done nothing substantive to provide for a UN peacekeeping force to address the tragedy.

This is the type of film that must be widely scene if Americans are to awaken from their slumber and respond to this horror of murder, rape, massacre, slaughter, and dislocation that is being committed by Sudan's government against its own citizens. Perhaps there is still a chance to save even more people from dying if Americans are willing to pay attention to what is happening. I hope that Americans take the time to see this important and compelling film about the greatest tragedy of our times.

When he finished in the field with the US Marines, Captain Brian Steidle turns away from a desk job on his way up the ranks and instead takes a job as a military observer of the ceasefire in Sudan. The access he is able to have within the country ultimately leads him to be in no doubt that he is seeing Government-backed genocide against the African citizens of Darfur. With no weapon but his reports and his photographs, Steidle charts all that he sees in villages razed to the ground. This film charts his growing frustration at the lack of movement that this approach seems to create.

Normally I would criticise those who praise a film for its subject rather than judge it on the basis of the film itself. Normally this film would be one of those and on these terms I would not be as kind to it as it really deserves. The reasons for this are clear from watching the film because really it could have been better structured and delivered. I thought the film would use Steidle as a device to explore the subject but somehow it tends to make him the subject too many times for my liking. This is a niggling irritation and it is not helped that the delivery of the subject is structured around his experiences – which is not always the most effective way of doing it because it does not build the case in the manner that would be most impacting and informative.

Having said that though, it is difficult to watch the film and not be moved and sickened because of the subject and because most viewers will have seen so little of what is happening in Darfur. The photographs are disturbing and graphic. Whether it be charred remains or humans with eyes gouged out, it is not easy to sit and watch without reaction. The lack of intervention is also difficult to watch and this is the one aspect that the focus on Steidle contributes to well because he feels the frustration firsthand.

Overall then this is a compelling and sickening film but it is nearly despite the film, not because of it. The structure is not strong enough and the focus on Steidle distracts and detracts as much as it adds – it should have used him more as a way in rather than the centrepiece of the film but these are minor complaints versus the shocking truths that the film puts in front of us. The images are sickening, so is the lack of action and the exposure the film gives to the subject is worthy of praise and makes this worth seeing even if it could have been better.

Those who have any doubt about the position that oil plays in World politics need only to see this film to know why the Bush administration has done nothing in Darfur.

The atrocities are graphically displayed here in a region that is devastated by the Sudan government with the aid of the Janjaweed militia to keep the oil money from China coming in.

Burned bodies are just part of the evidence presented by a former Marine Captain, who is now part of the UN peacekeeping mission. The cries of the people are heartrending. The fact that IDP camps are attacked is further evidence of genocide.

A handful of Israelis are killed by rockets and it is all over the news. Over 400,000 Darfurians have been killed and over 2.5 million driven from their homes. When is the last you have heard anything in the media? This excellent film shows the stain on our souls from allowing it to continue.