In the mid-1990s I had to do some preliminary research on the genocide in Rwanda, and, although it gave me only a very rudimentary understanding on the situation, I'm nevertheless glad I had obtained at least that much. When media reports of casualties and deaths continued to spiral out of control, I was better able to filter that harrowing information, instead of reading some statistics without really having a point of reference. Be that as it may, a picture like Hotel Rwanda was an even more educational experience. By putting one of so many more real life stories to film, it brings to light a tragedy of incalculable proportions to those in the Western World who had yet to see a comparable representation of these events.
This is not to say Terry George's movie, which is an affecting triumph, does not take some liberties with the story to make it more accessible as a human struggle that is aimed squarely at our tendency to tsk tsk from our movie theatre seats. After all, this is still Hollywood, and concessions must be made before marketing a film set in Africa, and which is still so recent in the minds of those who may feel squeamish at its message of culpability. As an example of this slight domestication, once the core (and, for that matter, extended) group of survivors of the genocide are introduced, the harrowing violence becomes one step removed and often occurs a mile down the road. The film is constructed so that there is still much suspense in the fates of the major characters, but the fourth wall rarely gets broken down. In addition, the Hutu point of view is scarcely examined to show the mindset of such atrocity, except to depict the tribe as coarse hooligans. Certainly, nothing could ever explain or excuse such behaviours, but it would have been a more rewarding challenge if Terry George and co-screenwriter Keir Pearson had given a depiction of the other side of the coin more of a try, however difficult it would have been.
The true story revolves around Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), his wife Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo), their children, and the countless people they saved thanks to some ingenious, quick thinking and hard sacrifices. Paul is manager of the Milles Collins hotel in Kigali, a high end oasis for tourists, politicians and the well-to-do. Rwanda's indiginous people are the extremist Hutu tribe (who comprise a majority of the population), and the Tutsi. They are divided only, according to one character in the film, by slight differences in physical appearance, all but unrecognizable to the naked eye. The actual back story of how the Tutsis at one point ruled the country is not really examined -- only the present is -- but this information is not critical to immersing ourselves immediately into the ruling Hutus taking immediate control and exacting their revenge on the Tutsis.
Paul, himself a Hutu, begins to fear for his wife, who was born a Tutsi. He prepares for the worst by stocking up on supplies and essentials at his hotel. When his family is sought out, a group of refugees are already hiding out in his own home. Soon Paul is desparately offering Hutu militants his life's savings just to spare his family's lives. Once the ever-growing group arrives at the hotel, Paul barters with any number of people to get the necessary supplies to tide over he and a swarm of refugees until the United Nations intervenes. But when the rest of the world turns a deaf ear to the genocide, circumstances grow dire and drastic measures must be taken just to survive.
It is in this setting, one without any semblance of resolution, that Hotel Rwanda finds its poignant message of hope. That Paul is willing to sacrifice all of his material possessions to save people he doesn't know is moving, but secondary to the astonishing fact that he is able to improvise courses of action with a level head in any number of seemingly impossible scenarios. There is a magnificent scene late in the picture when Don Cheadle depicts, if only for a moment, the overwhelming gravity of Paul's circumstance. It shows how incapacitating it would have been to allow such an indescribable reality to register if he had allowed himself to stop even for a minute to consider it.
Although this is not so much a movie about performances, the cast is solid, including Nick Nolte as the head of a U.N. task force, Joaquin Phoenix as an empathetic but realistic journalist, and Sophie Okonedo in an Oscar-nominated performance as a wife and mother who is willing to fight this unwanted battle, but immeasurably frustrated at her lack of options or ability to do anything about it. Above all, Hotel Rwanda uses the plight of the Rusesabagina family to show on a small scale that such a traumatic experience happened to tens of thousands of other families, many of whom did not survive. The film eulogizes them and shames the leaders of so many other nations that sat back and passively allowed such a travesty to occur.
