Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008) — Liberia

           I've reviewed films from seventy-three countries for this website, but I can't remember one as powerful and inspirational as this documentary about how Muslim and Christian women joined together in a peace movement to end fourteen years of civil war in Liberia. From 1989–2003 Liberians endured starvation, systematic rape, torture, mutilation and Charles Taylor's cocaine-crazed child soldiers. A third of the country was displaced, up to ten percent perished. Then the women rose up and organized. They stood by the thousands in the fish market every day in their trade mark white tee shirts, in scorching sun and torrential rains. They announced "sex strikes" to all the men until the violence ceased. They prayed and fasted. They picketed the American Embassy. They demanded peace, telling Taylor in a public ceremony, "We are tired of war! Tired of running! Tired of begging for wheat! Tired of our children being raped!" They forced Taylor and the rebel factions to the peace table in Ghana. When talks stalled after six weeks, they staged a sit in and prohibited the delegates from leaving the hall until they signed an agreement. After the peace accords in 2003, they led the nation in disarmament, then in voter registration and campaigning, which led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president of Liberia and the first African head of state in January 2006. WARNING: this documentary film contains graphic film footage and descriptions of the war. I got this film on Netflix.