‘Darfur,’ inside and out

The crisis in Darfur has become a byword for a seemingly insoluble conflict, one which the international community has been unable to get its hands around, let alone solve.

“Darfur Now,” a documentary directed by Ted Braun, attempts to both explain the situation to audiences and offer some reason to hope for the future. It’s an almost impossible task, and though the film does better than anyone might expect, its success is not complete.

The notion writer-director Braun has come up with is to look at that devastated region of the Sudan through the eyes of six different individuals, some inside the country and some outside, as a way to understand the complexity of the issues involved.

Inside the country are Hejewa Adam, an anti-government rebel; Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Abakar, in a position of authority inside a refugee camp; and Pablo Recalde, whose World Food Program provides much-needed sustenance for the hungry.

In the United States, grass-roots activist Adam Sterling tries to get the state of California to divest itself of Sudan-related stock, and actor Don Cheadle uses his celebrity to put a spotlight on the crisis. In Geneva, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo puts together a case against the Janjaweed militias who are devastating Darfur.

The problem with this approach is that inevitably some individuals are going to be more involving than others. The best material is the result of the rare opportunity to shoot inside those refugee camps: hearing firsthand testimony from victims about the catastrophic horrors inflicted on their villages is forceful and persuasive.

Though they are completely committed and are doing difficult, meaningful work, the Americans in the film just do not hold the screen with the same force and power. We are cheered by their successes, but they don’t compel our interest in quite the same way.

Of the foreigners enmeshed in the Darfur situation, the most engaging is Moreno-Ocampo, a prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, who works to make a case against members of the Sudanese government for complicity in genocide.

One of the things that makes Moreno-Ocampo so appealing is that as an Argentinian he speaks with authority on how the former military rulers of his country, once frighteningly all-powerful, were brought to the bar of justice. If the truth can prevail in his country, the prosecutor believes, there is no reason why it can’t in Darfur. As hopeful notes go, that is as good as it gets.

[email protected]

“Darfur Now.” MPAA rating: PG for thematic material involving crimes against humanity. Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes. Laemmle’s Sunset 5, West Hollywood.