Director: Brigitte Uttar KORNETZKY.
GOD NO SAY SO Sierra Leone 2009 Brigitte Uttar Kornetzky Director, Editor, DOP After 11 years of a war they did not understand, rife with horrible war crimes, Sierra Leoneans live fraternally and peacefully despite a ruthless corruption, which strips them of the basic necessities. God No Say So weaves a colourful mosaic of Sierra Leone and her peoples' extraordinary forgiveness and resilience. In a crux moment, a baker maimed during the conflict still feels unsettled and cannot find peace within himself. With the camera characteristically close, he is asked if he would seek revenge against the man who did this to him, he replies after a long moment of silence, "Me? God no say so." Yet God is not the centerpiece for tales of survival, access to water, education, hard work, prostitution, and fear of accused war criminal Charles Taylor. While filming, Taylor literally flew over in a helicopter on his way to jail in Freetown, which was terrifying for everyone being filmed at the time. His trial at The Hague should end this Fall, with the sentencing perhaps in 2010. Over two hundred at time survived the war in the belly of a bridge above the ocean. Kornetzky was the first outsider to see it. The core group of survivors breaks rocks beside the bridge for a meager living. "No stealing. No fighting. Righteousness. Together as one." It's a contemporary post war bohemia. In a long conversation between a broker and a woman with keen wit who hustles Whites when she can, to support her family, we find a treasure about hope, dreams, and optimism. "Corruption is so rife", we hear a journalist say, that everything goes to a few people, while the others suffer miserably. Then the camera descends into a shantytown by the ocean. God No Say So captures a spot in human history so dark that it demands a new order of our minds. Searching within so much confusion doesn’t find solid ground. The victims’ minds still turn, as do ours, with their outrageous reality. The criminal acts are enormous. Could our neighbors – our children - could we do this? Why is this happening to this good spirited people?