Hotel Rwanda

Hi everyone I’m back! I just finished my 20-days winter break (which is too short) and got back to school a week ago. During my leisure time, I re-watched a movie called Hotel Rwanda. Since it’s a really great movie that worth watching, I’d like to share it with you! 

(The poster of Hotel Rwanda)

The first time I knew about this movie was during my cinema class at school when I was grade 11. The setting of the film was based on a cruel genocide called Rwandan Genocide which happened in 1994. When I watched it for the first time, I was immediately shocked by the idea of people killing each other for no proper reason. (Not that people have any proper reason to murder… But can you believe that the world still had this kind of terrifying violence in 20 century? It led to the casualties of approximately one million people and most of them were Tutsis. I don’t know about you, but I definitely wasn’t aware of how cruel this world could get. I realized how happy and safe my country was compared to citizens in Rwanda who were running away but eventually dying in desperateness. No exaggeration, I cried several time while watching this movie. The movie hired very talented actors, plus the sound effects and history background made it really touching so don’t blame me for being emotional. I will introduce the story in the following paragraph and try my best not to be a spoiler (I may fail so might as well warn you first—Spoiler Alert!)

So there were two races of citizen that lived in Rwanda, one was called Tutsis and the other was called Hutu. The two races were having conflicts in both political and racial aspects, according to the movie. In my opinion, it was just the leader of two races were both trying to take over the country and they encourage their races to fight. (I wasn’t craving the truth deep enough so I might be superficial.) Even most of the slaughterer were Hutu, there were Hutu being killed by Hutu because they were considered as traitor if they helped any poor Tutsis to escape or not killing them. To cut a long story short, that was how this movie began.

Hutus were attacking Tutsis refugees

The movie began with introducing the main character Paul, who worked as a hotel manager in Rwanda.

(Right: the real Paul Left: Paul in the film)

He was a real person in history who was also a survivor, Since this is his story, of course he’s the protagonist. He risked his life and tried his best to save as much Tutsis and kept them safe in his hotel as he could. However, the Hutu regarded him as a traitor immediately. They spread the news and wanted him all over the country.

In order to create contrast, the movie had a foil named Gregoire, who was an employee in the hotel.

(Gregoire the employee )

As a main character in the film, he was portrayed as an employee who usually skipped shifts and complained about his boss. (I’m trying hard not to spoiler so go find out what’s the deal with him by yourself) Gregoire was a typical Hutu who had hatreds against the Tutsis. Even when he didn’t have any issue with the Tutsis, he hated them as much as a disgusting cockroaches. In other words, Hutus had gratuitous discriminations towards the Tutsis, and the conflicts and misunderstandings between them were so deep that every Hutu considers killing Tutsis as their honor and responsibility. Paul tried his best to reach to the management of the hotel and asked for help, but they rarely did. There was one chance that Paul can escape to the airport with a group of refugees, but at the last minute he left his family on the truck and chose to stay with the rest of the refugees and figured how to transport them out of the country. It’s not easy to give up your own safety and put your life at risk for strangers, but Paul did it.

(Paul and his family)

At the end, Paul saved more than one thousand Tutsis refugees on his own. Through this film, I understood how war and racism destroy peace. I hope every human on Earth will be able to live in a peaceful environment. This film is highly recommended, because it will worth your time.