Don't miss this film!

Rating: Null/10 (17 September 2004)

Riveting and compelling, this true story will challenge your heart and mind. If you didn't know it was a true story, and if history had not recorded the events of the Rwandan massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in a conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis (the blurry difference between which is expounded in a most creative way in the film), you might not believe what you see in the film. The story of Paul Rusesabagina's (Don Cheadle) reluctant courage is also true. Paul is the Hutu manager of the Belgian-owned Milles Collines hotel in Kilgali, Rwanda at the time of the Hutu uprising against the Tutsi ruling minority in 1994. In the film, we see just enough of the conflict to sense the impending massacre and attempted genocide of the entire Tutsi population by these radical Hutu militia. In an effort to save the lives of his own Tutsi wife and those of his mixed children, Paul ends up protecting hundreds of people who seek refuge in the hotel once all the Western guests have fled. Interestingly, any sense of condemnation in the film is focused on the West's complacency and complicity in the massacre and bloodshed that ensued when the UN and Western powers decided not to intervene in this first post Cold War ethnic conflict. Rating: 9 out of 10. After you see it, tell your friends Â– this film deserves to be seen.