Originally broadcast on PBS, Lumo is a compelling documentary focusing on women raped by soldiers who terrorize rural villages in civil war-torn Congo. Lumo is a 20-year-old patient at the HEAL Africa hospital who was raped by marauding soldiers and suffers from a fistula, a painful condition that leaves her incontinent and threatens her chances of giving birth. Rejected by her fiancé and most of her family, Lumo is able to find a new support network within the hospital, where the dedicated staff and her fellow patients surround her with love and faith. Indeed, there is often more prayer than antibiotics at the hospital (at one point Lumo undergoes surgery without anesthesia), and two years and five operations later, Lumo's body is healed and her personality has shifted from isolated victim to sassy life of the party. Four directors (Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt, Nelson Walker III, Louis Abelman, and Lynn True) helmed this remarkable documentary that details the shockingly primitive misogyny that still permeates Congo (at one point, hospital administrators and patients listen glumly to a male local official blame women's provocative clothing for instigating the attacks) but also celebrates the indefatigable spirit of survival. The jubilance in Lumo's eyes when she realizes that her body is finally whole again is a moment of extraordinary beauty. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)
Lumo
(2007) 72 min. In English, French & Swahili w/English subtitles. DVD: $26.95: individuals; $100: public libraries; $200: colleges & universities. Goma Film Project. PPR. Volume 23, Issue 2
Lumo
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