A movie that should be seen by all.

Rating: 8/10 (2 August 2005)

I guess there is no-one who can say that he or she doesn't know what has happened during the genocide in 1994 in Rwanda. The images of all the massacres, often committed with nothing more than machetes, were absolutely horrifying. But on us Belgians this event has perhaps had an even bigger impact than on other Europeans and on Americans. Not only has Rwanda, after Germany's defeat in World War I, long been a Belgian protectorate (no, just as Burundi it has never been a colony. We only had one and that was Kongo), making that we still have some kind of historical connection to the country. Our government has always helped the Rwandese with military assistance and training (except during the genocide). But we were also personally affected by the genocide when 10 of our UN peace-keepers were brutally murdered in a military camp because they tried to protect one of the Rwandese ministers. Three of them were shot, the others were hacked open with machetes. The images of the paratroopers who cut their blue berets into pieces with their bayonets, once their returned home, will never be forgotten by all those who saw it back then.
"Hotel Rwanda" doesn't show anything about that particular event, but it does give a good idea of what the rest of the entire genocide, and the reaction of the international community towards it, was like. This movie tells everything from the perspective of Paul Rusesabagina, an ordinary hotel-manager from Hutu origin who saved the lives of many Tutsi's. While the rest of the Hutu's brutally murdered every Tutsi around him, he not only protected his Tutsi wife and his children, but helped many of her relatives and friends to escape the horror by opening the hotel doors for them. Despite the fact that he didn't get much help from the UN or from the French, he was able to save over a thousand helpless refugees...
I would like to say that this is a wonderful movie, but not without adding that I'm not talking about all the murders. What I like so much about this movie is that it shows how a seemingly ordinary and unarmed man was able to stand up against all those militia men, not only protecting the lives of thousand people, who would otherwise have faced a certain death, but risked his own life by doing so and didn't care. If this hadn't been based on a true story, many would have said that it was impossible, but it isn't. All this actually happened, the good things as well as the bad. The makers of this movie have recreated it all very well and certainly have done some great research about the reasons and the attitude of the international community.
The acting in this movie was also outstanding. Don Cheadle did a perfect job in his portrayal of Paul Rusesabagina and Nick Nolte was excellent in his role as the Canadian Colonel Oliver, but that doesn't mean that the other, less known actors, weren't at least as good as them. They all did a wonderful job, lifting this movie far above average. If there is one thing that I could have a remark about, than it must be the fact that they speak English, instead of French. But that's such a little detail, that I'm very willing to forget about it. It didn't really bother me and it certainly didn't spoil the rest of the movie for me.
Overall this is a movie that should be seen by all. Not only because we should never forget what has happened over there in 1994, but also because we should hope this is a lesson for those who are planning on doing it and for those who never did anything about it. I give this movie a well-deserved 8.5/10.