Occasionally the subject matter of a documentary transcends the film's artistic construction. Such is the case with director Kief Davidson's Kassim the Dream that sketches a relatively fast paced portrait of Ugandan born world champion boxer Kasim "The Dream" Ouma. To fill in the large gaps in his backstory, viewers should delve into preliminary background material about late 20 th century coups and genocide in West Africa—a number of recent documentaries about Sudan provide material as does Barbet Schroeder's remarkable General Idi Amin Dada. A sense of the horror can also be gleaned in Hotel Rwanda and even in Blackhawk Down where you can see a few young children fully armed and engaged in warfare.

Kidnapped at the age of six, Kassim was trained by the rebel army to be a soldier and was forced to torture and kill a number of civilians in order to survive the nightmare. Far from being a unique situation, some 300,000 African children have shared this lifestyle. Details about this period remain sketchy for good reason as does the story about how Kassim's boxing skills were first discovered and developed. Suffice it to say that boxing became Kassim's therapeutic refuge and led to his eventual freedom after defecting to the United States during a military boxing tournament in 1998.

Homeless but armed with supreme skills, courage, and charisma, Kassim soon located a boxing gym and launched a professional career that led to the American Junior Light Middleweight title in 2002 and the IBF world junior light middleweight title two years later.

Part of the reason that Kassim's rise to the championship is limited is that concept of doing a film about him only came about after achieving prominence. Davidson met Kassim for the first time in 2005 on the night that he was defending his crown against Roman Karmazin, and the director was told not to ask him anything about his childhood. Even though Kassim strongly desires to make the world more aware of the widespread abuse of children being abducted as soldiers in Africa, revealing specifics about his past remain terribly painful. Thus, only broad strokes are provided in the film, and much of the film requires Kassim to provide off screen narration.

Most vivid are the post 2005 portions that Davidson is able to film in direct style—Kassim's meeting with the Uganda Ambassador to learn that he will be "forgiven" and be allowed to return to his homeland due to his boxing championship status and how this has been a positive promotion for Uganda and an extensive coverage of Kassim's visit to Uganda (the adulation of young people, the tearful reunion with his grandmother, and his grief stricken visit to his father's grave).

The straightforwardness of the film lends itself best to educational purposes and to venues like PBS, so don't expect visual arresting imagery or profound messages. Although the backstory is more amazing and contains the idea behind the American dream, don't expect the emotional impact of Stallone's Rocky. But the film achieves its purpose and does the best it can by providing a suitable introduction to a charismatic boxer who has an incredible story to share—topical and compelling to the point of overcoming artistic quibbles with its presentation.