‍They Slept With Me (English and Acholi)

This gripping title of the film, “They Slept With Me” immediately raises two pressing questions for anyone concerned with the pursuit of justice: Who were “They”? .... And who was "Me"?  “They” were Ugandan government soldiers in the late 1980s. 'Me' was an Acholi civilian male, Julius Okwera, living in Gulu district, a part of northern Uganda which later became the center of Uganda's counter-insurgency strategy against the recognized Lords Resistance Army group.  This short documentary shares the testimonies of several male survivors of the acts of rape. It raises critical questions about the quest for justice for conflict-related sexual violence. The questions raised by men are not unrelated to those posed by female survivors: “Will the government pay the 'dowry' for what they did to me?” Is it really possible that a survivor can tell their story in a space of formal justice where they will be heard by several people, and where their story risks causing the terrible phenomenon of self-imprisonment - so much so that the survivors do not hardly leave their own homes for fear of the stigma they will face?

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