Dir: Terry George.
Starring: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Nick Nolte, Desmond Dube, Joaquin Phoenix, Fana Mokoena.

I was 10 years old when the genocide in Rwanda happened. I have some vague memories of images on TV about some country I had never heard of before where people were doing horrible things to each other, but I didn't know why they were doing it and I doubt that after I had finished watching Newsround I would have given it any further thought. As I have gotten older, and similar events have unfortunately happened since in other countries I have started to understand some of the issues behind genocide and realise what horrific things human beings are capable of doing to each other. However, my understanding of the events in Rwanda back in 1994 was still very patchy until very recently indeed. Then I saw this film.

Why this film did not sweep the board at the Oscars is beyond me. It is without a doubt the most powerful and thought provoking film I have seen in a very long time. It is based around the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, who is exquisitely played by Don Cheadle. Paul was the manager of an exclusive Belgian owned hotel in Rwanda where he met and made contacts with some very influential people. The film picks up just before the outbreak of the violence and explores the very interesting notion of how the two different groups of Tutsi and Hutu were formed in Rwanda. The Tutsi's were the favoured people under colonial rule due their 'superior' qualities that the Belgian's had identified in them. The Hutu's were the rest of the population, when the Belgians left however, they left the power with the Hutu's which was the start of the tensions, even though they were all fundamentally the same people.

Paul Rusesabagina was a Hutu, but his wife and many of his friends were Tutsi's. The situation Paul found himself in was with everyone turning to him as he was the only Hutu they felt they could trust. At the beginning he manages to rescue his family and neighbours and take them to the sanctuary of the hotel. Somehow, word must of spread of his activities and he was soon inundated with refugee Tutsi's at the hotel. By calling in favours with the influential people and from the scant protection of the UN peace keepers he manages to keep all these people safe within the hotel, until a time when they can be moved to safety.

What made the most impact on me with this film was not so much the story, although that was gripping and heart wrenching, but was instead the realisation I had that we (the western world) stood back and did nothing while this was going on. The UN peacekeepers were there to protect, but were under instruction not to shoot. In some ways they were like wildlife film crew watching a gazelle running away from a lion, wishing it would get away, but powerless to help (maybe not the best analogy in the world, but the only one I have come up with so far...). The US was reluctant to intervene after events in Somalia, and besides Rwanda wasn't really an economic priority for them (a cynical take perhaps, but that's how I see it). The UN played a minimal role, the figure quoted in the film was 300 personnel in the whole of Rwanda, Europe sat back and watched, debating over what did and did not constitute genocide. How could we morally do that is beyond belief. Even more shocking for me was when I had finished watching the film (I have a time delay in my brain) I realised that these things did not stop in 1994, but have happened since in Europe and today in Sudan. When are we going to stop being so passive about these things and start helping when we are so desperately needed?

I'm afraid that this is not your classic film review, but the issues that the film threw up have got me very passionate about them rather than the film itself, but without the film this would not have happened. I think that this is a film that everybody should see, to understand both the wider issues around the events in 1994 and the personal level of the loss and fright that so many people suffered, which the film explores beautifully. A film about the death of over 1 million people is not to be taken lightly, and I think that they managed to make it so that they got the point home, without being overly graphic about it (there is surprisingly little blood, so the squeamish amongst you shouldn't be put off by such a heavy film). Please see it, if everyone has an insight into the horror that such human actions can create, then perhaps when we are the generation in charge we might not be so passive about it.

Certificate 12a, 121 minutes.