At the age of seven, Emmanuel Jal was forced to leave his home in the Sudan, driven out by 20 years of civil war to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. There, bright, intelligent and a natural leader, he became the children’s spokesperson, but was soon enlisted into the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, where he fought for almost five years alongside some of the estimated 10000 child soldiers that have been involved in the conflict. Now in his twenties, Jal is a rising star of the African hip-hop scene, and campaigns for peace and unity.

First-time director C Karim Chrobog has the wisdom to present Jal’s incredible story without any added drama. The film follows him performing at a fundraiser in the US, speaking to students and US Congress staff in Washington DC, and then travelling back to the Sudan for the first time in 18 years. In between these events Jal talks about his life, and we see footage from an earlier documentary of him in the refugee camp at the age of eight, images which haunt us once we know what that angry, sweet boy was soon to experience.

In many ways, Emmanuel Jal is still that boy – amazingly forgiving, shy, humble and generous, but with an impish sense of humour and a determination to somehow turn his hellish childhood into something good and positive. His love for his ruined country, for the whole ruined continent, has outlasted all the horror through which he has lived, and by the end of the film we are as certain as he is that he can and will make a difference.