Hey everyone. Quick warning. Today's episode involves some discussion of

sexual violence. It comes up early and we wanted to give you a heads up.

The French title of today's film is Rebel, which is a true cognate, means the same in English as you would guess.

But that's not its English title, maybe because the word rebel has been so thoroughly monopolized in English by a single

entertainment franchise.

Rebels have graduated from bull-sying wamp rats and their T-16s and are now taking the

fight to the empire.

But despite that near monopoly of association, it remains easy for the media to completely

rob us of a nuanced understanding of a civil conflict by using the term rebel to describe one of the signs.

It starts to evoke terms like freedom fighters, which we've all been trained to mentally translate as terrorists.

In today's film, our main character Kamona mentally translate as terrorists.

In today's film, our main character, Kamona,

feels so far from all of these definitions.

She is a 12-year-old girl who is basically too young

to be motivated by the forces we imagine inspire people to become rebels.

In fact, it's the rebels that completely wreck her life.

Her coastal village is just sitting there minding in its own business when they come, collect the youngsters,

force her to murder her family, and then spirit her away at a motorized tree trunk canoe to become

a soldier for their cause.

It's an unspecified country and an unarticulated grievance these rebels have with their government.

But quickly, Camona becomes special to their troop

and to the rebels at large because they believe she is a witch.

...