Hotel Rwanda directed by Terry George and released in 2004, is one of the films that most accurately depict the reality of the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. This genocide marks one of the most bloody and abrupt in the history of genocides where the Tutsi began slaughtering the Hutu. The story is told through the main character Paul Rusesabagina’s heroic acts as a hotel manager and his dedication to his family and people. The story centers on him and his family sheltering Hutu refugees at the Mille Colline Hotel in Kigali, resisting the Tutsi rebels as they began the massacre of Hutu families almost overnight. The film clearly portrays how and why the genocide began and it is through this that theoretical concepts such as ethnic violence and ethno-political mobilization can be drawn. Terry George aims no less than to demonstrate the Rwandese reality through the extremely violent and cruel scenes in the movie, he manages to convince the audience that really, over 800,000 people were in fact killed in no more than 100 days and more than 2 million refugees had to seek shelter elsewhere in the world (1). To begin with, it is important to understand the root causes of the conflict between Tutsis and Hutus to in turn understand the genocide demonstrated in the movie. Rwanda was …show more content…
It is because within these examinations, one can witness theories used in international relations and one can also see how these theories were created, from real life situations like this genocide. This film builds on the reality of conflict within a state and between states, thus exploring not only conflict but how the conflict is started and possible solutions, this is all the study of international
C. Introduction The Rwandan genocide lasted three months and in those three months it is said that 1 million Tutsis were killed. The Holocaust lasted 4 years and 6 million Jews were killed. Bearing this in mind it would be expected that The Rwandan genocide should be extremely well known because of the loss of lives, impact and brutality of the event and the similarities it holds with The Holocaust. The fact is that the Rwandan Genocide is not very well known and is not thought to be in the same category as The Holocaust, where in fact it is.
In the movie Hotel Rwanda Paul Rusesabagina’s response to challenge significantly because he helps all the Tutsi and Hutu people trying to escape the rebellion. He saves the people by offering them a place to stay in a Belgium hotel and keeping the rebels away from the innocent people. The Hutu and Tutsi were at war a long time ago and they still had a hatred for each other. The Hutu people killed the African President and blamed it on the Tutsi so they started up the war again and innocent Tutsi people were being killed. The rebels almost killed Paul’s family until he got the police to take him and his Tutsi family to the hotel.
This story takes place in 1994 Rwanda,Africa where the hutu group are attacking the “rebel” Tutsis. In one scene of the movie we see when the hutu soldiers and the protagonist Paul are at the diplomat with his family trying to get the keys to the hotel when suddenly all his family members are outside on the floor fearing for their lives because of the hutu soldiers were going to kill them for being “rebels.” In this scene we see how bad the problem really is, they went to kill all of the tutsis at once they considered them as an infestation. Some cockroaches. Hutus believed they were superior race.
(document 7) Belgians created the ideas of the Tutsis being the superior race and the Hutus are the inferior race, moreover, the Belgian had ethnic identity cards made to distinguish between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Someone shot the president of Rwanda, Habyarimana ‘s airplane down, this gave an open door to the Hutus to gain control of Rwanda and over the Tutsis. Since there was no president all hell broke loose, Hutu officials corrupted government ran radios and newspapers, they suggested the killing of Tutsis. (Document 8) A group called, Rwandan Patriotic Front founded by Tutsis attacked government forces and defeated radical Hutu in Kigali. More than 3 million migrated to Europe, Canada, the United States, or neighboring countries.
The day after the president is killed, the Hutus don’t wait at all and they start killing Tutsis. The movie also shows the viciousness of the Interahamwe, and how
This is a Eulogy to Paul Rusesabagina from the film Hotel Rwanda. This is from a personal point of view as an important person to Paul. Paul Rusesabagina was truly the greatest, of the greatest of men. He was selfless, wise, and kind beyond belief. I remember the good and bad times we shared together.
In the book “An Ordinary man: An Autobiography” by Paul Rusesabagina, the author faces many bad problems and experiences distasteful moments throughout the whole novel. The author uses quotes the explain the significance of the 1994 Genocide in his own eyes. Near the middle of the story, as Paul explains the harsh treatment and taunting of RTLM against them, he tells us about a teacher who brainwashed her students into hating the “Hutus.” “It always bothers me when I hear Rwanda’s Genocide being described as the product of ‘ancient tribal hatred.’ I think this is a easy way for westerners to dismiss the whole thing as a regrettable but pointless bloodbath that happens to primitive brown people (Rusesabagina Chp.4 Pg.53).”
It shows how ordinary people can do horrific things. On April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down. It was blamed on the Tutsi people, causing a genocide. According to History.com, “The genocide spread throughout the country with shocking speed and brutality, as ordinary citizens were incited by local officials and the Hutu Power government to take up arms against their neighbors (History.com).” This highlights how the genocide was done mostly by normal citizens.
CAPTAIN: "How many in your family?" PAUL: "Six." CAPTAIN: "Pull your family out." ” - Keir Pearson & Terry George, Hotel Rwanda. People may have tried to protect the Jews and the Tutsis buy unlike Hotel Rwanda, the Jews were in concentration camp which made it harder to look out for other people when it’s even hard to look out for yourself whereas in Hotel Rwanda, one man was able to take care of an entire ethnic group of people, his family, and
FILM REVIEW - SOMETIMES IN APRIL 11/1/2015 0 Comments Picture In 1994, Rwanda faced a civil war called the Rwandan genocide. This war was between the Hutus and the Tutsis, and later other countries were involved. The genocide consisted of 500,000 to 1,000,000 deaths which makes this war a turning point in the history of Rwanda.
The Rwandan genocide was a mass murder of thousands of Tutsi people by the Hutu people, they were viciously killed and scared out of their country, partly due to the rumor that a Tutsi man ordered the death of the Rwandan President. To begin, from April to July 1994, members of the Hutu ethnic group in the East-Central African nation murdered 800,000 men, women, and children from the Tutsi ethnic group. During this period Hutu civilians were forced by military soldier and police officers to kill their neighbors, friends, and family (“10 facts About the Rwandan Genocide-Borgen”). Radio stations encouraged ordinary civilians to take part in the killings (“10 facts About the Rwandan Genocide-Borgen”).
Rwanda genocide The Rwanda genocide was a mass execution of an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsi’s which was led by a Hutu-government. The true reasoning behind the opposing forces taking action against one another can’t be described but for quite some time their disagreements could have only led to one thing. Not too long before the Rwanda genocide occurred, the U.S had dealt with unfaithful missions in Somalia, which only brought havoc to our military forces. With what was supposed to be a highly disclosed mission turned out to falsely overlooked leading to the plan being a complete atrocity.
The film American History X is a film about crime fueled by racism. The crime was committed by a man named Derek Vinyard, a white supremacist. He murdered two black gang members after they attempted to steal his truck. If we look closely at the case of Derek Vinyard, we can see that the crime he committed weren’t just a spur-of-the moment thought of killing someone. His actions were rooted deep into his past, wherein his experiences have shaped him into the person that he was today.
The genocide was an after affect of the scramble for Africa by European countries who help no regard for the people who already lived their. In the scramble for Africa many European countries raced to make claims on land in Africa that was already lived on by natives, they mistreated the natives and killed and enslaved many of them. This was prevalent in Rwanda when the belgians imperialized the land. The belgians sent the Hutus who were the majority of the population into slavery and lead to mass deaths of their people. But they lead the land through another ethnic group the tutsis who made up about 15% of the population compared to the 85% population of Hutus.
One cannot fight fire with fire. While massacre reigns in Rwanda and people take betrayal to the extreme, Paul Rusesabagina in his book, An Ordinary Man, proofs how violence is unnecessary while standing against the power of the word. As Rusesabagina states, words are “powerful tools of life”(Rusesabagina, 19). The war between the two different ethnic groups, Hutus and Tutsis, and the death of thousands left a mark Rwanda’s memory; the author says: “It is the darkest bead on our national necklace” (222). Even though a large part of Rwanda’s population is massacred, many are saved by one of Rwanda’s timeless heroes.