The film starts with a "Boom." The opening credits cut to battle footage shot by Maoist soldiers, which exemplifies the chaos of the People's War up close. Fear is evident in the voices of Nepali child soldiers as machine guns fire from all sides. The battle footage cuts to slow motion shots of a Nepali child with a rifle hiding in a field of barley, Maoist armies marching with communist flags, and a young woman leading a protest in Kathmandu. As native Nepali drums pound, these images are juxtaposed with shots of the majestic Himalayan landscapes. There is no traditional narration; the voices of Nepali journalists and scholars give a brief history of the past decade of violence in Nepal over video of Maoist soldiers training in their camp.
Cut to our exclusive footage of Chairman Prachanda, the Supreme Leader of the Maoists and now Prime Minister, as he speaks about his dream of a "New Nepal" to hundreds of Maoist soldiers. The documentary gives the audience a balanced point-of-view, including rare interviews with representatives from all sides of this issue. With considerable risk to ourselves, we were able to gain unprecedented access to Maoist leaders.
With stirring music underneath, we show panoramic shots of the Himalayas, giving the viewer a sense of the vastness of the Nepali countryside. The struggle to overcome the harsh terrain in Nepal is a reoccurring theme through the film.
We meet each of the children as they recount the reasons that they joined the Maoists. In a surprising twist of the popular perception of child soldiers, many of the kids we meet were not abducted by armed gangs but voluntarily joined the Maoists. "Asha" is a shy yet captivating young girl whose identity is protected by lighting her in silhouette inside of her family's two-room earthen hut. "I was 13 years old when I joined the Maoist's Party. My family is very poor and I liked the way the Maoist leaders spoke to me." When her family forced her to leave school because they felt girls did not need an education, Asha thought the Maoists were her only option. "Maya," a bold 15-year-old girl tells us about her recruitment, "I was 12 or 13 years old at the time. The Maoists said I was the perfect girl for the party. They wouldn't leave without me. I had to go with them." Maya felt the Maoists were an ideal continuation of the gang life she had begun. Ramesh and Ashish, two boy soldiers, also explain why they joined the Maoists willingly.
Following the introduction of the children, Nepali experts briefly outline the history of Nepal and the rise of Chairman Prachanda and the "Prachanda Path", the Nepali version of Maoism. Nepal's leading journalist and publisher, Kunda Dixit, describes how Prachanda worked for a United States development project as a young man but became disillusioned by flagrant corruption. In an exclusive interview, Chairman Prachanda explains why he started the war, his feelings about the Maoist's use of child soldiers and reveals his ultimate goals for the "New Nepal". Ironically, it was U.S. money, sent to promote education and democracy among rural communities, that opened the eyes of a frustrated populace ready to fight for the Maoist cause. Poverty, the caste system and lack of opportunities for women gave Prachanda a solid base for his revolution.
The Maoists claim to be helping the marginalized and disenfranchised, and Mark Turin, Himalayan Scholar, agrees - to a certain extent. "The 40 demands of the Maoists read like a manifesto of an international aid organization", he told us. However, the troubling images of armed children re-appear. Ganesh Man Pun, leader of the Young Communist League, denies recruiting children but the footage contradicts this statement
We hear more from to the child soldiers, who describe their time with the Maoists. Ashish recounts in a moving narrative how he lost his best friend from childhood in a battle with the Royal Nepali Army. "I felt awful when my friend was killed right in front of my eyes. It was devastating because we had played together as children, and now he was dying right in front of me."
Next, we turn to children who are not affiliated with the Maoists. Rita, an outspoken village girl from an untouchable caste, explains that she also considered joining the Maoists because of her family's poverty and her father's drinking problem. She sees joining as a viable option. Later in the film we find out what she decides. In contrast, Menuka, an energetic and determined activist says that when her sisters tried to force her to join the Maoist movement, Menuka ran away from her village to live on the streets of Kathmandu. She was determined to get an education rather than join a violent movement. Now she is helping other girls find ways out of exploitive situations.
We return to the focus of the documentary:
the return home. In this section, we see how difficult the reintegration has been for the child soldiers. When 14-year old Asha returned for a brief visit, her family immediately forced her into a child marriage with a man in his twenties from a distant village. Because Asha had shamed her traditional Hindi family, they wanted her away from the Maoists and away from them. Asha was defenseless against her husband's repeated rapes and his family's beatings. After a year of abuse, she tried to hang herself. When her father-in-law caught her in the act, he threw her out, and with nowhere to go, she returned to her parents' home.
Although UNICEF partners and other organizations are trying to help children reintegrate, many of the children would rather rejoin the Maoists, believing it is their only opportunity for a future. Maya says, "My love for the Maoists will not die. I am prepared to do anything to help them." We dissolve to black as the music come up full and fades.
We cut to footage of elections held in April 2008. Kunda Dixit, in voiceover, describes how the Maoists won the elections and now Prachanda is prime minister. Rita describes the rows of people waiting all day to vote-even the elderly were brought out in stretchers to vote. However, people in her village were intimidated into voting for the Maoists under threat of a beating.
Ashish joined the Young Communist League after the election. Ramesh is working to recruit other children for the Y.C.L. in his village after the election. Maya and Asha remain separate from the Maoists and are now enrolled in a skills training program provided by UNICEF.
The film ends with some updates regarding the children. Asha says, "I tell my friends not to join the Maoists. I tell them that they need to get an education first. At a very young age, you shouldn't be involved with these activities. When you're only 13 or 14 years old, you just don't understand yet." Fade to black; credits fade up under a traditional song sung by a Nepali villager.