Sunday, January 25, 2009

Hotel Rwanda

I never watched this movie when it came out in theaters... but I thought I might enjoy it on the flight home from Boston.

Hotel Rwanda is an important and carefully crafted film well worth seeing. Set in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, during the genocide of April and May 1994, Hotel Rwanda is a sensitively made film. Unlike many Hollywood films it is neither gory nor distasteful. This film focuses on the incredible true story of Paul Rusesabagina, the assistant manager of the Belgium-owned International Milles Collines Hotel. By ingenuity, good connections, bribes and bluff, Paul managed to save the lives of over 1200 Tutsis from the genocide.

This is an engrossing, gripping and ultimately uplifting film showing how one person can make a difference even amidst the worst conditions. Over 500 000 Tutsi Christians were systematically slaughtered in the Rwandan Genocide. More people were killed with machetes in Rwanda in 6 weeks than have died of atomic weapons in all of history!

I remember reading about these atrocities... but watching this film again brings up that evil still exists in the world today. And that we must all do something about it.

Again, we are so grateful to live in a free society where we have liberties and opportunities. Lets just keep it that way. Watch this movie as a reminder of why we work hard for our freedoms.

2 comments:

Janet said...

I agree, this was a great movie!

Karrissa Winward said...

I learned about the genocide in a political science class in college and I have been captivated by the stories since. I really liked this movie and can't believe things like that really happen!