Thursday, August 30, 2012

Kinyarwanda

The film opens on soldiers from the Rwandan Civil War at a unity camp with both rival Hutu and Tutsi members present, as they confront the unspeakable atrocities they carried out years earlier. We then travel back to that time of genocide and horror, witnessing the stories of several individuals: A Muslim and Catholic cleric who go their own routes to protect the persecuted, a Tutsi woman in a relationship with a Hutu man, a group of both peacekeepers and soldiers, and finally a young boy who unwittingly gives up a sheltered stowaway in his parents home. The set-up for "Kinyarwanda" (a common language in Rwanda) sounds similar to the tired ones that have guided so many movies as of late, with the difference being the personal touch bestowed here and also the fact that each storyline is not intersected and wrapped up neatly for convenience stake. Director Alrick Brown tells a deeply felt story about a horrific event which was sadly glazed over and continues to the affect a wounded country and the many lives involved.