Hotel Rwanda
I went to see Hotel Rwanda tonight despite my better judgment. I knew what kind of film it was going to be. It was quite the unhappy experience. I try to avoid serious, unhappy movies, but I highly recommend this movie and will probably brave the unhappiness again.
The movie explores the horror of genocide in Rwanda -- when the Hutus rose up against their Tutsis brothers, sisters, and family and began hacking them to death in the streets, in their homes -- focused on removing all Tutsis from existence. When it all came to a halt 100 days later, over one million people -- adults and children, lay dead. The movie conveys the atrocity in one of the most horrific scenes -- an early morning drive in the fog is suddenly interrupted by a road that seemed built of potholes. When the van is stopped, the realization hits -- the entire road is covered with dead bodies. One child is shown, eyes closed, hands around her ears, trying to hide from the horror that claimed her life.
The other horror however, was the rest of the world. When the massacre started, the west started pulling its peace keeping troops out. The world ignored the escalating violence. It wasn't just governments. People just didn't care. It was just another bunch of third world people killing each other. As the UN officer in the movie told the hero (and I paraphrase), "You're mud. You're dung. You're nothing. You're not even niggers. You're Africans." He was expressing his helplessness. He was expressing how the world regarded the genocide in Rwanda. When the world needed heroes, there were none, because the people being slaughtered were not even considered to be people.
I won't say more about the movie. It depicts yet another tragedy of the human species -- our capacity for hate delivered without restraint. It's a sad story that defies description. As the BBC Steve Bradshaw, who was there, said about the inability to articulate what happened: "The problem is, there isn't much conflict in mass murder, not much scope for lyricism, dramatic tension, and above all there are very few heroes." It's hard to tell the story and capture the scope of the mass murder. The film however, did a good job -- it focuses on one of the few heroes -- Paul Rusesabagina -- who made his first class hotel a refuge and in the process saved over 1,000 lives.
Some links that the official movie site provided:
Rwandan Radio Announcements -- disseminating hate propaganda and encouraging the genocide
The Triumph of Evil -- a PBS documentary
International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda -- UN site
The movie explores the horror of genocide in Rwanda -- when the Hutus rose up against their Tutsis brothers, sisters, and family and began hacking them to death in the streets, in their homes -- focused on removing all Tutsis from existence. When it all came to a halt 100 days later, over one million people -- adults and children, lay dead. The movie conveys the atrocity in one of the most horrific scenes -- an early morning drive in the fog is suddenly interrupted by a road that seemed built of potholes. When the van is stopped, the realization hits -- the entire road is covered with dead bodies. One child is shown, eyes closed, hands around her ears, trying to hide from the horror that claimed her life.
The other horror however, was the rest of the world. When the massacre started, the west started pulling its peace keeping troops out. The world ignored the escalating violence. It wasn't just governments. People just didn't care. It was just another bunch of third world people killing each other. As the UN officer in the movie told the hero (and I paraphrase), "You're mud. You're dung. You're nothing. You're not even niggers. You're Africans." He was expressing his helplessness. He was expressing how the world regarded the genocide in Rwanda. When the world needed heroes, there were none, because the people being slaughtered were not even considered to be people.
I won't say more about the movie. It depicts yet another tragedy of the human species -- our capacity for hate delivered without restraint. It's a sad story that defies description. As the BBC Steve Bradshaw, who was there, said about the inability to articulate what happened: "The problem is, there isn't much conflict in mass murder, not much scope for lyricism, dramatic tension, and above all there are very few heroes." It's hard to tell the story and capture the scope of the mass murder. The film however, did a good job -- it focuses on one of the few heroes -- Paul Rusesabagina -- who made his first class hotel a refuge and in the process saved over 1,000 lives.
Some links that the official movie site provided:
Of course, it might have been the fact that only ten years earlier the Tutsis had waged genocided against the Hutus, that made the world turn its' face away from the new massacre. It's hard to watch the peoples of a country repeatedly butcher each other, over differences only they can understand, and not feel aversion- and an impotence to help.
ReplyDeleteI hear you -- but I disagree. Their differences aren't only understood by them -- they are well understood by Europe as well -- Belgium to be precise. It was Belgium that created the Hutus and Tutsis. Belgium made one group favoured over another. Belgium wanted Africans that were paler, had narrower noses and tall -- closer to the then European ideal. Colonialism raped and pillaged Africa. Africa never recovered.
ReplyDeletereplica bags cheap 9a replica bags replica bags in uk
ReplyDelete