Hotel Rwanda is the portrayal of a violent disagreement between the radical nationalist Hutus, who waged war on the Tutsis. The Tutsis were considered a minority but had still been granted power over the area by the Belgian colonies when they departed. The film follows this disagreement in power and how it brings about discriminations and prejudice, eventually leading to ruthless acts of violence such as genocidal massacres. The film also follows one man, Paul Rusesabagina. He is a Hutu and a successful hotel manager who is doing well for himself and his family. His wife, Tatiana, is a Tutsi. She spends parts of the film urging Paul to wield his influence in order to save the local Tutsis. Paul is unwilling to help anybody until the massacre’s start. Earlier in the movie, Paul promised to only save his family, but as the genocides begin Paul finds himself unable to witness the innocent slaughtered and his hotel becomes a refugee camp.
There are a couple themes in Hotel Rwanda. Class warfare is what began the genocidal war to begin with and is the most important theme. The war began due to social tensions between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Hutus and inhabited the area for much longer than the Tutsis. The Tutsis, having migrated there, were granted power by the leaving Belgian colonists. With the land they were also granted all of the wealth, leaving the Hutus to fend for themselves. The Hutus felt entitled to what was technically their land and their wealth. In numbers they were the majority but they were living as if they were the minority and so class warfare broke out (106). Another theme emerges with Paul’s sense of duty to his countrymen and the unity that he feels among the Tutsis. Earlier in the film he swears to not get involved and to only protect his family but as war breaks out he realizes his conscience will not allow this. He sends his family to safety while he stays behind to look after the wounded and the abandoned. In the scenes depicting him overseeing the hotel, now a refugee camp, it is forget that he is a Hutu or that the people around him are Tutsis. They are all just humans taking care of one another or being taken care of. It is only during the violent scenes of genocide that we see any difference in the people on screen.
We see the story told primarily through the eyes of Paul Rusesabagina. He is of course a character who claims our sympathies. A Hutu caught in the crossfires between his own countrymen and that of his wife’s he is forced to separate himself from his family in a time of genocide in order to reconcile is how conscience. It is difficult to watch and that’s putting it lightly. In many scenes we get the sense that he knows he is fighting a losing battle but Resusabagina seems to feel that as long as he at least tries that will be enough to mean something. He sees that the world has turned their backs on this crisis, as long as somebody tries to do what is right he may feel okay. The Tutsis have our sympathies as well, they are being carelessly murdered over land and wealth.
The film does broaden the viewer’s our view of Africa while still confirming what we have been told time and time again. It is true that civil unrest is an occurrence that happens in Africa far too often to mention. The violence and brutality with which the Hutus acted is not unheard of nor is it unlikely that the scenes in the movie were not just as gruesome in real life, if not more so. However, because the world tends to turn its back on the gruesome, the film did open the viewer’s eyes to the goodness that lies within the insanity in Africa. The world reads headlines of genocide and war, but none of conscientious hotel managers who send their families away to keep them safe in order to turn their establishment into a refugee camp. The film showed that there are in fact decent people that are willing to fight back, harbor the innocent, and try to set things right no matter how wrong they appear to be.
References
Hotel Rwanda. Dir. Terry George. Perf. Don Cheadle. 2004. Film.
Waldorf, Lars. "Revisiting Hotel Rwanda: genocide ideology, reconciliation, and rescuers." Journal of Genocide Research (2009): 101-125. Print.
