The agonies of present-day Africa are deeply etched in the bodies of women. In eastern Congo on the Rwandan border, vying militias, armies and bandits use rape as a weapon of terror. Lumo Sinai was just over 20 when marauding soldiers attacked her. A fistula, a medical condition common among victims of violent rape, rendered Lumo incontinent and threatens her ability to bear children. Rejected by her fiancé and cast aside by her family, she awaits reconstructive surgery. LUMO is her story, tragic in its cruelties but also inspiring for the struggle she wages and the dignity she displays, with the help of an extraordinary African hospital, to overcome shame, fear and the affliction that robs her of a normal life.

LUMO premiered at the 2007 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival where it won the President’s Award before going on to screen at dozens of other film festivals, conferences and policy meetings around the world. It aired nationally on PBS/P.O.V.

2007, U.S. 72 min & 60 min
Directed/Produced by Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt & Nelson Walker
Co-directed/Produced by Louis Abelman
Co-directed/Edited by Lynn True