The Devil Came on Horseback is the story of one man's exposure to and campaign against the genocide in Darfur."Devil on Horseback" is the English translation of Janjaweed, which is the name given to the government-armed Arab raiders sacking villages (Middle Ages-style) of black Africans in the Darfur region of Sudan. Former U.S. Marine Brian Steidle was sent to the region as an unarmed military observer working for the African Union.
Steidle's only tool is a camera, and the photographs are horrifying.
The film is mostly the story of Steidle's campaign to bring recognition to the genocide; he finally got the attention of the federal government when some of his pictures appeared alongside an op-ed column in the New York Times. The story of how he turned this into his personal campaign does speak to the power of one man on a mission.
I say that it's mostly his story, though, because it could also be an investigation as to what our role as a nation should be in a situation like that, except that it basically starts with the assumption that we need to stop the war, and we've failed. Perhaps that's true. It wouldn't be the first time we intervened, and it won't be the last. But I think it would make a more compelling film if it let us think that through on our own.
Bottom line: a study in motivation; an indictment of our foreign policy vis a vis Sudan; atrocious visuals. But I'm not quite sure it's the call to action that it hopes to be.
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