Courage Under the Threat of Extermination

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2007)

Unless these tragic incidents take place in our own country, we will see them unfold through our very eyes courtesy of CNN, et. al, and go on with our lives while shaking our heads in horror and pity but not doing much else. This is exactly what a reporter played by Joaquin Phoenix tells Paul Russebagina, the hotel manager of Les Milles Collines as Rwanda begins its inexorable plight into the horrors of racial purification -- the war between the Hutus and the Tsutsis.
As a matter of fact, unless you saw the news back in 1994, you didn't and wouldn't even know of these events. It was virtually kept under wraps and only revealed when the death toll was unnaturally high. What HOTEL RWANDA attempts, and succeeds in doing, is bringing forth the absolute tragedy of a country driven to the extremes of decimating its own population in lieu of establishing the eventual dominance of the Hutus over the more "esthetically pure and therefore privileged" Tsutsis.
However, where the movie really makes its mark is when Paul Russebagina, the smooth talking, subtle Hutu man who as of now has been able to get people to eat out of his palms faces the stomach-turning horror: no one will come to his aid, no one will even attempt to intervene to stop the madness that is exploding all around him. The U. N. has turned its eye away from the situation. Belgian soldiers within the country are escorting only foreign citizens. Paul and those left behind will have to fend for themselves and hope to find a way out.
HOTEL RWANDA establishes the character of Russebagina as an essentially good person who gets caught in a situation that spirals out of control and forces him to face it head on: much like Clive Owen's character in CHILDREN OF MEN, or even Schindler in SCHINDLER'S LIST, his is a man who grows from being just an observer of sorts into a hero who goes beyond the call of duty while maintaining a brave face in the light of the sight of his people being massacred for the sake of genocide. Sophie Okonedo lends a strong support as Tatyana Russebagina, a role that could have been thankless but achieves a relevance all its own. Where Terry George's film succeeds is bringing a moral consciousness unto us, the people viewing this film which is a mirror of the events from over a decade ago without exaggerating the gore. It makes us aware that regardless of how distant these events might be unfolding, it's really unto us to lend a hand to those in need.