Johnny Mad Dog

Today, in contemporary Africa.

Johnny, 15, a kid-soldier armed to the hilt, is inhabited by the mad dog he dreams of becoming.

With his small commando – No Good Advice, Small Devil, Young Major – he robs, pillages, and slays everything in his path.

Laokolé, 16, pushing her disabled facther around in a rickety wheelbarrow, attempting to invent the glorious future which her brilliant studies seem to have in store for her, strives to flee her city occupied by teenage-soldier militias, with her little brother Fofo, 8.

As Johnny advances, Laokolé flees . . .

Under the windows of embassies, NGOs, the High Commissionership for Refugees, teenagers fed by Hollywood imagery and disinformation play at war. The militias fight enemies dubbed “Patriots”; the “Dogo-Mayis” want to exterminate the “Mayi-Dogos”; the adolescent warlords call themselves “Giap” or “Rambo” and kill each other over a TV set, a basket of fruit, or a misplaced word.

Childhoods cut short, an Africa ravaged by absurd wars, a people who are trying, in spite of it all, to survive and to save their humanity. –Cannes Film Festival