You forget you're in a cinema - you are in Rwanda for those 2 hours.

Rating: Null/10 (26 March 2005)

Hotel Rwanda The true story of a man who saved over 1000 people (many of them very young children) from slaughter. Close to a million Tutsis died because the west didn't want to risk the lives of 300 of their own - these 300 people who have histories, families, loved ones, blah blah who were so much more important and valuable apparently. Instead of sending in the requested urgent intervention to protect over a million people marked for death, the west washed their hands of these people.
Based on the footage I have seen from various documentaries on the genocide, I believe that this film is an entirely accurate portrayal of what happened (except, of course, the language would have been French, not English). Filmed on site in Kigali, the painstaking attention to detail in the film made you realise exactly what it would have felt like to witness the situation unfold right before your eyes. I feel I can understand how it's possible to not see (or believe) something like that is imminent until too late. We all "have" these reassurances in the back of our minds that this sort of thing can't happen, that humanity won't let it happen, that someone in power somewhere will make sure this kind of thing won't happen. That surely it's someone's job somewhere to ensure this can't happen.
I watched this film with my friend Lucy, who was in Rwanda as an aid worker shortly after the genocide - she's even been to the hotel itself.
But what you realise is that, in reality, you really can be abandoned by the world, even if they know FULL WELL what's going to happen to you, even if they know FULL WELL that they'll regret not helping when they should have and be so very ashamed of themselves later. Humans seem to sometimes prefer to be ashamed later than to risk their necks in the now.
You forget you're sitting in a cinema - you are in Rwanda for those 2 hours. I felt a whole spectrum of emotions - I was scared, sad, horrified, angry, I felt the tension and relief for the characters at every turn, etc as the scenes unfolded.
Lucy said it best - we were both shell-shocked when we came out. I had my tissue in my hand.