Pray The Devil Back To Hell
Pray The Devil Back To Hell is a documentary about how a small group of women in Liberia managed to end civil war and establish peace in their country, through the power of reasoned and peaceful protest.
It is composed of interviews with many of the key figures involved, as well as a lot of footage taken at the time and in the key places.
Both of these elements are very impressively done; the interviews range from key contributor, and the woman who began the women’s movement, Leymah Gbowee, through to women who were there and observed her work, and even some of the rebel fighters who eventually agreed to peace.
The footage meanwhile is often powerful and candid, shot in the midst of war-ravaged villages, at the women’s marches and in their churches, at the peace talks in Ghana — every stage of events are captured on film and it makes for fascinating viewing.
It also presents as much of an eye-witness account of the story as you could hope for. It is notable that they have not used any footage which could be described as distressing, presumably so that the film can be used in an educational setting.
The film is inspiring, and its messages important. To see these women stand up and effectively fight for the triumph of common sense over violence is amazing —they are willing to brave abuse, violence and even being in a war zone, because the alternative is to allow much worse.
The most important message for me was that the Liberian women’s movement contained both Christian and Muslim women. Both are interviewed, and both very rationally explain that “the bullet does not pick and choose, Muslim or Christian,” so they would have to work together to achieve peace.
Makes sense, but it’s a shame people generally can’t look past their religion for something more important.
I am rarely a fan of documentaries, but this one is definitely worth watching. It is constantly interesting, and the amount of footage from situations in which it must have been difficult to film is astonishing; like at their audience with president/warlord Charles Taylor, or at the UN peace talks in Ghana.
It is such an unlikely story that it seems to have been written by a novelist or scriptwriter, and the ‘lead character’ of Leymah is so passionate, charismatic yet level-headed that she could have been a fictional creation.
Yet, obviously, she and the story are real, making this a genuinely inspiring film.
