by Jonny Leahan

"There comes a moment in time when human behavior is capable of the most ferocious and irrational activity. This capacity to go berserk, to have no semblance of feeling for the human condition at all -- apparently it lies in us.”
- Stephen Lewis, UN Envoy for Africa, in “Shake Hands with the Devil”

While it’s true that war has been around as long as human beings have, and is not likely to go away any time soon, few would deny that today’s conflicts are some of the most varied and volatile the world has ever seen. The recent genocide in Rwanda, the seemingly endless Chechen War, the deep rift between Israel and Palestine, and the bloody US occupation of Iraq all provide tragic examples of hostilities with complex origins that are often difficult to comprehend.

[Lt. General Roméo Dallaire in Peter Raymont’s documentary “Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire.” Photo courtesy 2005 Sundance Film Festival.]

As people around the world struggle to grasp what is happening, the art and media from various cultures inevitably begins to reflect that quest for understanding. Films are no exception, and this year’s Sundance Festival offers a crop of new documentaries that provide illuminating glimpses into many of these ongoing conflicts. Among the most noteworthy of the group are Pirjo Honkasolo’s “The 3 Rooms of Melancholia,” Peter Raymont’s “Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire,” and Sean McAllister’s “The Liberace of Baghdad,” all of which appear in the World Documentary Competition section.

In “The 3 Rooms of Melancholia,” Honkasolo creates a haunting cinematic portrait of young boys who have been ravaged by the Chechen War, most of whom lost one or both parents to the conflict, and have ended up in the Kronstadt Cadet Academy where they train to fight the enemy. At first, it’s difficult to believe this is a documentary, as it’s so lavishly shot in 35mm by Honkasolo herself, a Finnish national who, like all foreigners, was forbidden by Russian authorities to enter Chechnya.

Perhaps the most striking thing about “3 Rooms” is Honkasolo’s use of long close-up shots that linger on the boys’ faces, often when they are simply being silent, but their eyes are speaking volumes. The deep melancholy inside each of them becomes apparent, and it’s clear that these boys have experienced more pain in their first decade or so alive than many adults will ever live through in a lifetime. The brilliance of the film lies in Honkasolo’s attention to the in-between moments of life -- not the drama or the dialog, but those unguarded glimpses of introspection that reveal the subject’s soul, quietly making the point that as human beings, we’re all in this together.

In another equally tragic region of the world, “Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire” tells the story of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda through the eyes of Romeo Dallaire, the commander of the shockingly underfunded UN peacekeeping mission stationed in the African country. "There were so many bodies we couldn't pick them up,” Dallaire says in the opening of the documentary. “There was this howling sound of the dogs roaming around in packs, eating the bodies, coupled with the smell of death that was around us all. We were literally witnessing the mass slaughter of human beings…”

In a hundred days, 800,000 Tutsi were massacred by the Hutu as world leaders looked on unflinchingly. While most people were obsessed by OJ Simpson’s gloves, a point made in the film by Dallaire’s Military Assistant, Dallaire was risking his life to carry out an impossible mission, standing by his post when nearly everyone else had fled. “Shake Hands with the Devil” is not only one of the most concise explanations of the Rwandan genocide on film, but it is also a portrait of a complex man in a complicated situation, who remains torn apart by guilt and deep depression to this day, but is ultimately a hero for having saved thousands of lives against unfathomable odds.

“The Liberace of Baghdad” tells the story of another deeply conflicted man, Samir Peter, who was once Iraq’s most famous pianist, but now plays in the corner of a lonely hotel bar in Baghdad, opting to live in a bricked-up room in the basement rather than make the dangerous trip across town to his seven bedroom mansion. McAllister, a British journalist working in Baghdad just months after the fall of Saddam, wanted to make a film about what liberation meant to every day Iraqis, but then he found Samir.

McAllister discovered that “liberation” meant different things to different people, and although Samir was glad to be rid of Saddam, his daughter had quite a different take on the matter. "In Saddam's time there was security,” she says in the film. “It was different then. Since the occupation, the Americans have done nothing for us. Why did the Americans enter Iraq? Where were they for 35 years?” When McAllister asks her what it’s like now that she can freely express those opinions, she retorts, “Who can you express your opinion to? Who will listen?”

That kind of perspective, one that we almost never see in the Western media, is what is so powerful about films that document these current global conflicts. Not only do the best of these documentaries show the other side of the coin, creating a deeper appreciation for how these hostilities came about, but they foster a sense of cultural understanding one might not get otherwise. This kind of intimate, personal access not only exposes cultural differences, but has the effect of illuminating our sameness.

“I want to popularize international documentary making by making it more accessible,” McAllister told indieWIRE. “When I discover a foreign land that has a political issue attached to it, I then try to find a character that people would strongly identify with. What comes through Samir is the situation in Iraq… the other side of the news story. I’ve never felt more strongly that audiences are starved for the truth.”