Tanza segment questions

Yep, this segment was a bit tricky. From Wikipedia:

Tanza, directed by Mehdi Charef (set in Africa; the country is not specified, but it was filmed in Burkina Faso) - A child soldier is instructed to blow up a building. He enters the building to place a bomb. It turns out to be a school, and he decides not to do it.

So that answers questions 1 and 7.

Now, I'll add my input. Yes, of course, this is based on real life situations (Q9). Some African countries, even though extremely poor, wage civil wars. Members of one group call themselves legitimate government and say their enemies are rebels so they are freedom fighters, while the other group says the same about the first party. The fighting is so fierce, even children are employed as soldiers, plus most of male adults have already been slaughtered, so kids have to pick up their AKs. Grown ups do the order-giving, children shoot. From wiki, again:

Seven young freedom fighters, heavily armed, are covering ground looking for the enemy. At twenty-one their leader is the eldest. Tanza is twelve and has joined this group after witnessing the massacre of his family.

(Q2)

The order to destroy the school was given to Tanza by the leader of their pack, but I don't know why. It was clearly a civilian target, but maybe the commanders saw it as a place where rebel leaders come together to meet after school hours or something.(Q5)

As far as I can remember, Tanza wrote answers to various questions that had already been written on the blackboard. Questions, like what's the capital of some country (France?) or what author wrote what book. (Q4) And Tanza answered them correctly, this was supposed to give the viewer the understanding that these boys who fight war aren't stupid and have themselves been in school at some point in their lives. It's circumstances and their environment that made them fighters. He wore soldier boots, because they protected his feet, but he took them off when he started daydreaming about himself being in school once again. He didn't need soldier boots in school, the act of removing footwear was a symbol of his temporary return to childhood.(Q8)

Q6 is a bit tricky, maybe he forgot it was a bomb and imagined the thing was a bunch of books?

I don't know the answer to Q3, I completely don't get that scene either. Well, it just couldn't have been an ordinary firefight, could it? :D

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