Preview Screening: Darfur Between the Lines

Screening Friday 24th October, 2008

With Darfur’s peace agreement in tatters and the sound of gunfire still ringing in the air, this eye-opening, exclusive film goes deep into the territory to reveal a people struggling desperately for life yet determined to carry on in the face of danger and hardship.

In 2003, rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government and the Jangawiid, their proxy armed Arab militia. since then, an estimated 300,000 lives have been lost, 2.3 million people have fled their homes and 4.3 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. Darfur is now home to what the UN secretary general has called “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world”.

With unprecedented access from Al Fasher, where aid groups, rebels and
refugees exist in an uneasy equilibrium, this illuminating and touching documentary provides an eyewitness account of life in one of the most inhospitable environments in the world. capturing on film the desperation of those living and fending for themselves in the sprawling refugee camps, it also shows how aid, like war, changes everything.

Finally, political hope arrives in the form of General Martin Luther Agwai, mediator, diplomat, politician and charismatic commander of the new combined UN/African union peace-keeping force. He may soon have troops numbering 26,000 from all over Africa and Asia, but his is arguably the toughest job in Africa.

Darfur – Between the Lines follows him as he helicopters into hostile areas on a mission to coax and attempt to unite the fractioned rebel groups into talking peace.

Length: 51 mins, UK
Filmed and Directed by: Jeremy Jeffs
Producer: Sally Thomas
A Mayavision International production