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News Article for Saturday 20th February 2010

The brutal, visceral reality of children caught up in civil wars across Africa is brought to blistering life in Johnny Mad Dog, released on DVD from 15th March 2010 courtesy of Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment.

Directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and produced by acclaimed French actor Mathieu Kassovitz (Amelie, Munich), Johnny Mad Dog features former child soldiers and victims of civil war from Liberia in central roles in what is a genuinely unforgettable and truly unforgiving look at the reality of how civil war affects the children who sit at both ends of the gun barrel. The eponymous Johnny (Christopher Minie) is the lieutenant of an especially violent gang of young soldiers who believe they are leading a fight against a President they despise in an unnamed African country.

The gang's belief in their cause sees them commit atrocity after atrocity in the name of freedom, with rape, murder and brutalisation the tools in their personal war that is seeing the country fall into a state of ruin. At the same time, Laokolé (Daisy Victoria Vandy), a 16-year old student in the country's decimated capital, is attempting to flee the oncoming storm of violence with her baby brother, unaware that her plans will lead her inexorably towards an encounter with Johnny...

Gripping, frank and incredibly raw, Johnny Mad Dog is as important as it is affecting. Following an impressive showing at this year's London Film Festival, the film's release on DVD delivers a unique opportunity to witness the reality of what war means to the thousands of young lives that inevitably are consumed by it.