Hutu- Tutsi war in Rwanda

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2005)

Although I visited Rwanda shortly before the war I do not remember 1000 colins hotel in Kigali. Certainly there was a tragedy in this tiny African country where brothers- I do not make any differentiation between tall Tutsi minority and somewhat small Hutu majority - were fighting each other. Probably all this hate started at the time of colonialism when the Tutsi were more favored by the Belgians, and once the country got the independence, a Tutsi kingdom was established with discrimation over Hutu population, which lasted not for long. The Hutu defeated the Tutsi and came to power with a Republic that continued the discrimination this time against Tutsi. In that country was compulsory for everyone to have the ethnic indication in the identity card. The film is only touching the final phase of the war between Tutsi guerrilla who was coming from the North of the country and the Hutu extremists, who were able to kill its own president, as it is shown in the film, just because he signed in Nairobi a peace agreement. In the film one can see how Hutus were killing innocent Tutsi population, and how international community was weakly reacting to this mass assassination. Unfortunately, it did not show how many Hutu families were coming from the North to Kigali. The film finished with the victory of Tutsi, but was it the end of this war? Not at all, Hutu escaped to Goma in the neighboring Congo, and many of them died again in war established between both groups, but no in their land. So if Hollywood makes several sequels of non sense films as "Terminator", "Die Hard" and others, it would be wise to prepare a sequel of "Rwanda Hotel" showing what happened after the Tutsi conquered Kigali, and how this confrontation finished, or perhaps to prepare a similar film of the tragedy in neighboring Burundi, where the same groups are still fighting. Don Cheadle acted very well but somewhat different to the role he played in the film "Rosewood". In "Hotel Rwanda" he was a Hutu but married to a Tutsi lady and with several children, always looking for peace and understanding.