In this moving drama, ten-year-old Awet, played with powerful expressiveness by Letekidan Micael, is swept into the Eritrean war for independence of the early 1980s. Given to the Eritrean Liberation Front by their father, Awet and her sister are immersed in the rhetoric of the faction and eventually become child soldiers. Awet constantly questions the rationale behind the cause she is asked to fight for (they battle a rival rebel group more often than the occupying forces of Ethiopia), and the film portrays her courageous evolution from willing combatant to fierce challenger of authority. Based on Senait G. Mehari’s controversial memoir—many Eritrean government officials contend that child soldiers were never used by their country—the film has stirred up similar debate. But Heart of Fire, directed by Luigi Falorni (codirector of The Story of the Weeping Camel), is really about bringing to light the inhumane treatment of children in such circumstances. Stark and direct in its telling and buoyed by its remarkable central performance, this socially relevant film is not easily forgotten.

Written by Gabriele Kister, Luigi Falorni. Photographed by Judith Kaufmann. With Letekidan Micael, Solomie Micael, Seble Tilahun, Daniel Seyoum, Mekdes Wegene, Samuel Semere. (94 min, in Tigrinya with English subtitles, Seventh Art Releasing)