13/02/2005

Hotel Rwanda [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Don Cheadle
interview: Terry George
film profile], presented in the official selection (though not in competition) in Berlin, gives an incredibly striking account of the tragedy yhich happened in Rwanda in 1994. Directed by the Irish Terry George, this film is based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, director of the Mille Collines, a hotel in Kigali which belonged to the Belgian company Sabena, This man, himself a Hutu with a Tutsi wife, risked his life to save more than 1200 people from slaughter.

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Supported by Don Cheadle’s brilliant interpretation of Rusesabagina (who actually participated in the film as a consultant), Hotel Rwanda gives us a scary yet accurate and efficient view of the horror of this genocide. Terry George avoids all gratuitous pathos and easy melodrama so as to show a genocide in process, step by step, from the initial disorders to the horror of arbitrary slaughters. He also deals with the reactions of the government, showing how it declined all responsibilities and hid its head in the sand, leaving an entire race hopeless before the general indifference of all the other nations. Through the harrowing narration of a tragedy, this film unveils the darkest sides of international relationships, and this with great cinematic mastery: the picture, the attention to details make this film a clever combination of horror and romance, emotion and tragedy, This film subsumes its documentary status and brings emotions to an apex. “This story had to be told, the director explains. Everywhere in the world, spectators must be made aware of the reality of these events which have been totally overlooked so far. I want them to realise the love and courage of an African hero.”
This production, involving England, South Africa, and Italy, was handled by Kigali Films, with the help of Miracle Pictures /Seamus, Inside Track, and Mikado Film.