Hotel Rwanda DVD Review

"HOTEL RWANDA" reviews

DVD

HOTEL RWANDA

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-10-27 22:16:48

Provider

DVD Review

The massacres in Rwanda in the 90s, in which 800,000 died when Hutu turned against Tutsi, were the great scandal of the decade. The international community and the UN failed the Tutsi tribespeople, leaving them to be slaughtered.

Now Hotel Rwanda attempts to bring home the genocidal carnage of that time, in a film that carries echoes of others, such as Killing Fields, that have posthumously dramatised mass murder. The excellent Don Cheadle received an Oscar nomination for his role as Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a hotel popular with Belgian tourists.

When the slaughter begins and the tourists flee, Paul suddenly finds himself thrust into a role as the Rwandan Schindler, using his hotel to protect hundreds of fleeing Tutsis while bribing the Hutu general to keep schtum.

Cheadle, who's always promised much, gives an immaculate performance as Paul, deserving his acclaim, while Terry George, who as writer on In The Name Of The Father has experience of angry political movies, doesn't shirk from showing the full horrors of what went on.

Hotel Rwanda is a brilliant, heart-rending film that restores your faith in movies just as it shakes your opinion of the human race. Extras include directors commentary, selected scenes and commentary by Don Cheadle plus a making of... featurette.