The Silent Army
| The Silent Army | |
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Original film poster
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| Wit Licht | |
| Directed by | Jean van de Velde |
| Produced by | Paul Brinks Chris Brouwer Richard Claus |
| Written by | Jean van de Velde (screenplay) Sandra Nagtzaam (plotline) |
| Starring |
Marco Borsato Thekla Reuten Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga Andrew Kintu Siebe Schoneveld |
| Music by | Nick Laird-Clowes |
| Cinematography | Theo van de Sande |
| Distributed by | Independent Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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120 minutes |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Language | English Swahili Dutch |
| Budget | €7,000,000 |
The Silent Army is a recut, international version of the 2008 Dutch drama film Wit Licht (Dutch: Wit Licht meaning White Light) directed by Jean van de Velde about the hardships of child soldiers in Africa. It marks the acting debut of singer Marco Borsato. On December 29, 2008 it was reported that, despite bad reviews, the film had received a gold certification. More than 100,000 people went to see the film in two weeks time. In April 2009, it was announced that the film would be shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
The idea for the film originated with singer Marco Borsato, who is an ambassador for the non-profit organisation War Child Holland. After hearing stories from former child soldiers who had been through War Child Holland's programmes, Borsato became interested in initiating a film inspired by these stories. Together with his manager Paul Brinks, he decided that making a movie would be good for his career. Unfortunately, he found none of the scripts he was sent suitable because he couldn't connect to them. Eventually, a friend, Sandra Nagtzaam (Borsato's first manager) wrote a fitting story. A lot of elements in the screenplay are based on true events. Borsato has been an ambassador for War Child Holland for almost ten years and child soldiers was a subject he was often confronted with and something that he connected with. Paul and Marco asked Dutch film producer Chris Brouwer to produce the film. He brought the story to writer/director Jean van de Velde. Van de Velde wrote the screenplay and asked Borsato to take on the lead role.
The film was recorded on location; first in Uganda, then in South Africa.
After the movie had a big release in the Netherlands, French critic and movie director Pierre Rissient saw it and thought Wit Licht could do well internationally if it were recut drastically. Rissient cut out many Dutch scenes, took away the music, changed the ending and made the movie more suitable for arthouse audiences. This resulted in an invitation for the Un Certain Regard program at the Cannes Festival.
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Wikipedia