17/02/2005

Shooting Dogs, the new film by Michael Caton-Jones about the Rwandan genocide, will have its premiere later this spring in Rwandan’s main stadium in front of a vast audience of local people.
As in Terry George’s Hotel Rwanda screened out of competition at the Berlinale, Shooting Dogs uses a true story to describe the terrible events that occurred in 1994 when more than 800,000 Rwandans were massacred in less than three months. In this film, shot in the actual location depicted in the film and with the participation of many survivors of the genocide, the focus is on a massacre that took place in a secondary school in Kigali after the UN had abandoned it. “The tragedy of the Rwandan genocide is a story that must be told and there is plenty of room for more than one story about the events that took place in 1994”, commented Caton-Jones. “But obviously, I am particularly pleased that we went to Rwanda to make Shooting Dogs and by filming in the actual locations where this particular story took place we were able to give the film an authenticity and power that would be very difficult to reproduce elsewhere”.

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David Belton, producer of the film who co-authored the original story and was a journalist during the genocide also added: “It was an extraordinary time for the whole cast and crew to work in Rwanda and I think it shows in the final film which is a highly emotional and moving experience. We were all driven by our determination to show what really happened here eleven years ago”. “Basically, the UN and the West abandoned Rwanda when it was in a position to stop the slaughter. I am glad that Africa is again in the public eye but the question is, has anything really changed?”

The film based on a screenplay by David Wolstencroft from a story by Richard Alwyn and David Belton, reunites the actor John Hurt and Michael Caton-Jones for the third time after their successful films together Scandal and Rob Roy. The CrossDay / Egoli Tossell Filmfilm was produced by David Belton with Pippa Cross and Jens Meurer for BBC Films and the UK Film Council New Cinema Fund with financial support from Invicta Capital and Filmstiftung NRW. Renaissance Films handles International sales and several territories have already bought the rights to the film including Haut et Court in France, Lauren Films in Spain, A-Film/Cinelibre for the Benelux, Frenetic in Switzerland, Odeon in Greece, and Jens Meuren’s distribution company Time Bandits will release it in Germany.