Kinyarwanda

Most of you have probably heard about the Rwandan genocide in 1994. When I heard about it for the first time, it seemed to be no more than one of those small, trivial international news I got from TV, but I gradually came to learn about its sheer atrocity and countless tragedies, and I also watched several good movies about the Rwandan genocide including “Hotel Rwanda” (2004), which showed us how ineffectual the international community was at that time while 500,000-1,000,000 people were killed during that horrible incident.

While “Hotel Rwanda”, which is powerful in its own approach to the subject, mostly focused on the one desperate situation surrounded by the Rwanda genocide, Alrick Brown’s small but strong film “Kinyarwanda” (2011) looks inside the Rwanda genocide with a wider view through the various local people who suddenly find their daily lives turned upside down after the Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana was assassinated along with the Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6th, 1994. As the narrator says, during the long darkness of the next 100 days, some people became heroes who rose to the occasion in front of the massive evil fueled by tribalism while others became villains who went along with others and participated in the massacre, and the movie presents some of these people through a group of short stories powerfully interwoven with each other.

The first story in the beginning is effective with the ominous mood slowly crawling on the screen as depicting a group of teenagers enjoying each other’s company in the room during one sunny afternoon. One of the girls, Jean (Hadidja Zaninka) sees the militia goons passing by the window outside, but the mood in the room remains joyful and comfortable with the music from a portable radio/cassette player – except when it is momentarily disrupted by that virulent and vicious propaganda radio message propagating the Hutu Power ideology around the country.

Jean and her boyfriend Patrique (Marc Gwamaka) are in love, and they do not worry about much even though they are well aware of the difference between them. In our view, they look same and they speak the same languages (English and Kinyarwanda), but I remember Lee Isaac Chung, the director of another Rwandan film “Munyurangbo” (2007), told us during the Q & A session at 2010 Ebertfest how easily the Rwandan people can distinguish from the Tutsi, which means “those rich in cattle”, and the Hutu, which means ‘servant’.

In such a dangerous situation in which ruthless tribalism rages through the reign of its savage terror, not only the Tusti people but also the Hutu people standing by them are targeted. Later in the movie, we see a Hutu husband and his Tutsi wife dealing with their private problem at their home while also talking about what to do with the perilous circumstance outside. Even though their world is going mad, a certain matter in their strained marriage seems to be a little more important to them, and their bitter conversation feels poignant as we realize what will happen to them in the end.

We also see the Tutsi priest, Father Pierre (Mazimpaka Kennedy), getting an unexpected help when he tries to run away with other people after being betrayed by his fellow priest. They are protected by the local Imam (Abdallah Uwimana), and, after the long discussion with him and other Imams, the Mufti of Rwanda (Mutsari Jean), the leader of Rwandan Muslims, issues the edict saying that all Muslims in Rwanda must protect and shelter the people in their mosques regardless of race and religion. They clearly know the limits in their power and resource to prevent mass killing, but they try none the less because it is a right thing to do in their moral/religious view, and it is touching to watch Muslims and Christians stick together in front of the approaching danger at one point.

There are other plain but memorable people in the movie, and all of their stories are juggled and shuffled well by the director/screenplay writer Alrick Brown. Based on the story written by the executive producer Ishmael Ntihabose, his screenplay rolls and connects its vignettes through several powerful moments, and we gradually see how its small pieces are gathered together to make a big human tapestry while encountering some surprising or revelatory turns waiting for us. While one small adolescent digression saves one character from danger by coincidence, one innocent interpretation of the word ‘cockroach’ ultimately causes a very suspenseful moment which is later turned out to be more dangerous than we thought.

Under Brown’s unforced direction, his cast, who consists mainly of non-professional actors, brings lots of life to the simple but vibrant characters through honest performances, and the few professional actors like Cassandra Freeman and Kena Onyenjekwe, who play RPF soldiers who come from Uganda to Rwanda for protecting the refugees, do not look awkward with others on the screen. The plot involving these soldiers feels like a cliché at times and they sometimes look like belonging to the other movie, but their part remains as another perspective added to the big picture.

The movie also has the sense of humor as one of its ingredients. For instance, a young boy named Ishamael (Hassan Kabera) is introduced to us in an unexpectedly colorful way which cheerfully incorporates the small details of his dire environment into his hopeful imagination. How his innocence causes and resolves the disturbance in his family house is amusingly balanced between humor and suspense, and there is an open question on how much he understands the situation happening right in front of his naive eyes while his family members are seriously threatened by a trio of menacing militia goons led by the leader Emmanuel (Edouard Bamporiki).

In another powerful moment involving the Re-education camp in 2004 , the camera stares at the faces of the people who participated in the genocide, and we see them talking about what the atrocities they committed. It is hard for both victims and perpetrators, but repentance is eventually followed by forgiveness, and the glimmer of hope is observed. Although it was devastated by the genocide on many levels, Rwanda and its people succeeded in moving forward, and, even though that turbulent time is still a touchy subject even at present, the tribal discrimination is erased now in the society. Last week, I watched several episodes on Rwanda from a TV documentary program, and, as far as I can see, it certainly becomes a better place despite other remaining social problems.