Genocide film opens in Toronto
2004-09-13 14:04
Toronto - Paul Rusesabagina still insists he is no hero - even as a movie of his one-man resistance to Rwandan genocide, which has drawn parallels with Schindler's List, hits the big screen.
Hotel Rwanda relates Rusesabagina's struggle to keep hundreds of Tutsis safe inside his hotel in Kigali from gangs of marauding Hutu militia.
"It is very exciting, because in 1994 I never thought that I would survive," Rusesabagina said when asked about the movie, which had a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
"This is a wake-up call to the international community (so) that what happened in Rwanda may never, never happen again."
But Terry George, who directed and wrote the screenplay for Hotel Rwanda, bemoaned that Rusesabagina's hope rarely came to fruition.
"Never again has turned into again and again," said George, best known for his movies In the Name of the Father and Some Mother's Son.
Latter day troubles most often compared to Rwanda include Sudan's Darfur conflict in which between 30 000 and 50 000 people have died in violence characterised by the United States as genocide.
Compelled to make the film
George said he was compelled to make the film after visiting a genocide site in Rwanda, where by a freak of nature, lime intended to speed up decomposition of bodies had bleached and preserved them like the victims of Pompeii.
"In death, these people had turned the colour that could have saved their lives," he said.
Rusesabagina is played in Hotel Rwanda by the versatile Don Cheadle, who says he felt a "sense of real responsibility" to victims of the genocide.
Nick Nolte is the head of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda unwilling to abandon the country to its terrible fate.
By coincidence, the model for Nolte's fictional character is also being featured at the Toronto Film Festival in 2004, the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.
Shake Hands with the Devil traces the return to Rwanda 10 years on of Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian Lieutenant General who commanded a small UN force unable to prevent the horror.
The documentary by Peter Raymont is partially based on the memoires of Dallaire, who is still haunted by the terror of a decade ago.
Both films question why the outside world did so little to prevent the Rwanda genocide.