Hotel Rwanda
Rated PG-13, 2 hr. 2 min.
Critics' Rating: B+
Miles's Rating: A
Brooklynne's Rating: A

Last week, Brooklynne and I finally got a chance to see Hotel Rwanda. Many of our friends told us how good it was, and we had tried to rent it several times. It was a very, very good film, although if I had to sum it up in one word, I would describe it as gut-wrenching. I feel like it deserves a review even a week after watching, because the crisis has been on my mind ever since.

Based on real events, the film tells the story of a hotel manager who stuggled to protect more than a thousand refugees in the face of chaos and genocide. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the conflict, Rwanda was torn apart by ethnic (tribal, class, racial, colonial/nationalist?) violence that resulted in the murder of alomst a million people in just 3 or 4 months.

It is hard to call a film that is so painful to watch beautiful, but the movie really is a masterful piece of story telling. The film is not explicitly gory, although there are tons of indirect scenes of violence and evidence of it (dead bodies). I constantly felt a knot of fear, discomfort, intense sadness, and frustration. The film challenges viewers to question our international priorities. Why do we rush to intervene in strategic regions (Iraq) and countries with people that look like us (Bosnia), while we stand on the sidelines while poor African nations fall apart right in front of us? How long can white western nations reap wealth from afar (like the Beligians of this movie) and do only very little to help the people of these colonized nations, especially in times of extreme crisis?

Despite the hate, despair, and pain, the story really is one of courage, strength and love. If only we could face the small evils of our daily lives as well as Paul stands tall in the face of enormous hate and danger.