Cahier Africain

The focus of the film is a thin booklet. Originally an ordinary exercise book with racing cars on the cover sheet. But instead of normal words its checkered sides are filled with the courageous testimonies of 300 Central African women and girls. They reveal what had been done to them in October 2002 in the course of armed conflicts by Congolese mercenaries. The book is their self-fabricated evidence to prosecute their rapists. As part of an elaborate secret mission the magazine came to The Hague - in the hope of giving the World Court a crucial evidence in the trial against Jean-Pierre Bemba.
Cahier Africain tells the story of this issue on the basis of people whose lives came into contact with this thin booklet . Designed as a long-term documentation the film is based on a pool of recordings, photographs, letters and research reports which provide an insight into the life of its protagonists since 2008.
Filmmaker Heidi Specogna tells a moving story about African women, who don't give up but take their future into their own hands. (http://cargocollective.com/FILMBOUTIQUE/CAHIER-AFRICAIN)