Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda

The tragic events that took place in Rwanda during the 1990’s changed the peace between the Tutsi and Hutu people. In the 2001 movie, Hotel Rwanda, the battle is left in the hand of a hotel manager and ends up saving many lives of the Tutsi people. In 1994, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was assassinated, causing the Tutsi minority tribe to revolt against the higher class Hutus in an upheaval. The result was an assassination of 9, 037, 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in less than three months. However, one man stood out from the rest to save thousands of lives. A man by the name of Paul Rusesabagina managed a hotel in Rwanda during the genocide. This is not the kind of man the camera silhouettes against mountaintops, but the kind of man who knows how things work in the real world, who uses his skills of bribery, flattery, apology and deception to save these lives who have come into his care. The hotel was called Hotel des Mille Collines and it was located in the city of Kigali, which is the capitol of Rwanda. This was a decent sized hotel with over 100 bedrooms and had a rating of four stars. During the time of the genocide, many people were already staying in the hotel, such as news reporters and vacationers. Paul Felt as if he needed to use this hotel as a refugee camp and said that he would not be able to live with himself if he didn’t let people without homes in. I felt that Paul was a huge part of this movement and the actor portrayed his personality very well.
The movie itself was very well done. It was shocking and inspirational. I was shocked by the hatred and horrible acts that were committed against the Tutsi population. Genocide is something that seems surreal to me until I see films like Schindler's List or Hotel Rwanda. Killing just on the basis of race or ethnicity is completely and utterly insane. The genocide in Rwanda relates to geography in terms of ethnic conflict. As it was described in the movie, the differences between... [continues]

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