Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt's powerful Lumo brings attention to the women, all victims of rape, in war-torn eastern Congo, undergoing treatment at HEAL Africa, an NGO dedicated to helping those brutalized by sexual violence. For the physical and psychological damage it inflicts, rape is a diabolical—and relatively little discussed—instrument of war. Perlmutt's documentary bravely sheds light on the war's silent sufferers. In particular, he singles out the eponymous Lumo, a shy young village woman, who endures one operation after another in hopes of repairing the catastrophic tearing in her vaginal lining. Lumo is a window through which we get to know a clinic full of scarred but courageous women, and the activists determined to heal body, soul and society at large. For her vulnerability, her innocence, her sense of hope, Lumo becomes both a symbol of the peace that is still possible, and a target for everything the war wants to destroy. This is, by nature, difficult material, and the tone, perhaps unavoidably, has an ennobled heft about it. That, in no way, takes away from the perseverance of these women to reclaim their lives, their dignity and the compassion that informs Perlmutt's project.  Jay Antani