When carelessness kills faster than machetes, one good man emerged out to restore our faith in mankind...

Rating: 10/10 (27 January 2019)

I believe in goodness, I don't know about any other Holy entity but if there's anything pure and eternal in this world, in this history we share for the better or the worse, it's definitely "goodness". In the same train of thoughts, I believe hatred is more devastating than any devils or divine wraths. Sorry if I sound too metaphysical but that's the emotional state "Hotel Rwanda" left me in.
The film was directed by Terry George ten years after the Rwanda massacre. At that time, most viewers knew the numbers but didn't take their full measure. Indeed, why do we insist so much on World War II lessons if no one cares about the last genocide of the twentieth century? Has the African setting something to do with it? Is Africa so connected in the international subconscious to poverty, famine and civil wars that there would never be enough corpses to make the world care? History seemed to proved this right.
No one cared about the genocide and the genocide emerged out of that carelessness, that's its most tragic equation. The film is told from the perspective of a hotel manager who uses the 'Milles Collines' hotel to shelter refugees, protecting them from the Hutus who wish to settle a historical record with their 'enemies'. The man will witness savagery and horror from the view of a hotel balcony before walking among piles of dead bodies, but the toughest lesson of all would be that the victims weren't worth the help of Western countries and that obliviousness killed much faster than machetes.
It's very ironical that it was the Belgian colony that sowed the seeds of the very racism between Hutus and Tutsis, they ruled by dividing before division would implode like a volcano of blood. In a necessary expositional scene, a journalist played by Joaquin Phoenix (who represents our POV) learns that Belgians made the Tutsis the privileged ones on the basis of their tallness, lighter features and even the size of their nostrils. Tutsis would indeed rule Hutus and have more than a few altercations, but in 1994, for any newcomer, these considerations were silly: the journalist sees two girls in the bar, one Hutu, one Tutsi, but they could be twins.
The film doesn't hide the tacit responsibility of the European colonization and makes the absences of reactions from Western countries accessories to mass murders. The film doesn't point an accusing finger because facts speak for themselves, but it shows us the two sides of the same coin. Hutu and Tutsi living, working together, forming families and living in harmony and a radio program alimenting the hatred and asking the Hutu population to get out and "cut the tall trees" or kill the "cockroaches". The word is used so many times that we almost get used to it.
And naturally, these ugly terms of reference have a strong resonance and remind us of the darkest hours. And it's a credit to the film's central character to have been capable to save so many lives with so little help, the UN contribution was acknowledged through the character of Nick Nolte, a UN peacekeeper left powerless when there was no peace to maintain but who knew when it's necessary to show a gun. But let's get back to the film's hero, because he's a hero. The man is a Hutu, Paul Rusasebegina (Don Cheadle) and married to a Tutsi Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo) and together they have children.
Their chances of survival are thin but Paul, once abandoned by his Belgian bosses, knew he couldn't make profits because it meant betraying his family or buying their lives by selling others. Paul chose to jeopardize his life and his family's to save a thousands of Tutsi refugees from the altar of ethnocentric madness, using his hotel as a true oasis of peace. What was a publicity stunt became a reality of "matter and death" significance just like the factory in "Schindler's List" and it's true the film borrows a lot of elements in he narrative but there's a singular difference.
Indeed, Paul is directly concerned by the tragedy and the hotel is only a temporary situation and he knows it, at any time, the army can come, rebels can attack and his refugees massacred, Paul has no help but only time and skills. And this is what makes the film so riveting: to see this man who's only a civilian, uses what he knows best as a hotel manager to handle the most life-threatening situations. He needs ten minutes to put on a suit and these ten minutes are used to save hundreds of refugee, all it takes is to serve the guests a beer, to be a hotel manager, patient, polite, well-dressed, aware that war makes many profiteers and carpet baggers and you can make business with them.
In a more painful scene where he's asked to shoot at his family, he manages to bargain lives in exchange of money. Paul knows that for as long as he works as a manager and never loses his capability to negotiate, to bribe and even to blackmail with diplomacy, there might be a chance of survival.That's what "Hotel Rwanda" is a character study with a horrific war in the backdrop. And it doesn't leave us much time to catch our breath, it's truly a powerful and emotional journey that makes you wish you'd never have to live such a tragedy with your own beloved ones.
As Tatiana, Sophie Okonedo gives a magnificent performance of a mother who's always at the verge of a breakdown and yet keeps enough strength to protect her children, I could feel my heart pounding at the sight of her trembling body. And as Paul, Don Cheadle shines as a man whose best asset is his professionalism and self-control in the middle of chaos. And since I decided to deify goodness, I would call this man not a hero, but a Saint.