Leofwine_draca THE SILENT ARMY is a Dutch film looking at the plight of child soldiers fighting for warlords in sub-Saharan Africa. The film humanises the story by having as its central protagonist a white man desperately hunting for the kidnapped son of a friend who has been taken by a notorious general and who is now a ruthlessly cold-blooded killer.The film I can best compare this with is JOHNNY MAD DOG, a Liberian effort which had greater authenticity and realism but hardly any kind of story. Thus THE SILENT ARMY is the better picture, even though the story is spoilt a little by the low budget; some of the moments are rather cheesy (such as a CGI explosion) which is a pity given the grittiness seen elsewhere in the story.The language is a mixture of English and Dutch. The acting is generally authentic and compelling enough to keep you watching. The film is violent and harrowing without ever being disgustingly graphic. The actor who played the warlord made the film for me with his completely chilling and efficient performance devoid of emotion and feeling. It's a film worth watching if you can handle the subject matter.

norm184 Sorry, but in opposition to many of my predecessors I think this is quite a strong movie. The book might be a bit simple. (An heroic European cook saving a child out of an African rebel army. This is indeed not very believable. And the little side-love-story was not left out as well) But the picture has very strong emotional moments, is well edited and shot with opulent scenery and the acting is not as bad as many others put it. Just look at the rebels leader saying the cruelest things with the softest paternal voice you can think of. "You can call me daddy" - What a thrilling ambivalence lies in this scene. And the weirdest thing about all of it is that while watching the movie you know that those things are really happening like that down in Africa. (of course except the heroic part of the dutch cook - but the cruel part of it is unfortunately true) I have to say that I knew nothing of a Mister Borsato (Main Actor) before I watched this movie. Being from Germany I didn't even know him as a singer as all Dutch seem to do. And maybe that made my sight on his acting a bit more objective. At least I can say that I have seen many famous singers or pop-stars trying themselves out in being an actor with much less success then Marco Borsato did. only my 2 cents...

[email protected] [email protected] First of all; the behavior of Marco Borsato is very rookies and secondly you can save time when you watch a Warchild ad, because this movie is just one huge Warchild advert.All the effort of showing the Warchild (a NGO) case is really annoying and this is a bad ego trip of Marco Borsato Borsato is the only hero of the movie and the Africans all seem to be war victims or war criminals and nothing else. If a naive cook from Europe becomes a action "hero" in the way that it has being filmed it looks like a nice piece of imperialism.The subject of child soldiers has already been told and filmed hundreds of times and this movie is not a good way to show the problem, because its just a personal ego trip of those who made it.

imdb-21347 "White Light" is the story of a cook (Eduard Zuiderwijk played by Marco Borsato) in South Africa who wants to find the child of one of his employees. The child (Abu) was abducted to become a child soldier. The story shows the impact of such experiences to the children.There is a lot to do about this movie since the popular Dutch singer Marco Borsato had no acting experience. He uses his popularity to support the WarChild foundation. This movie gets you right in the middle of what WarChild is all about. Marco is a typical 'feel good' guy with 'feel good' music. Don't expect a 'feel good' movie though. Reality will hit you hard in the face.Accept the fact that Marco is a rookie actor and within the first 15 minutes you will enjoy one of the better Dutch movies ever made.