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Engaging African War Drama I remember back in the summer of 1994 when the Rwanda genocide first came to my attention, i picked up a newspaper turned to page 30 or something and saw a tiny article describing the deaths of possibly hundreds of thousands of people, what struck me at the time was that this could not be possible - if so many had died this would surely be on page 1? Bearing this in mind i well believe the film's underlying conclusion about western indifference to the conflict being linked to the colour of the victims' skin. This film charts one man's crusade to save the lives of hundreds of Tutsi refugees and moderate Hutu's by sheltering them in the hotel in which he worked for the duration of the genocide. It is interesting how he became the hero he was, firstly he had a Tutsi wife - it started there, he had to pay in cash for her life, then the empathy he had for his wife carried across to other Tutsi's - such illustrates how compassion and also hatred work, compassion by familiarisation, hatred by separation and misunderstanding. The film honestly incorporates many artifacts of the genocide, from the orchestrated mass rape of Hutu women to the very public indifference of the world's powers to the plight of the Rwandan people to the catalyst or spark which ignited the genocide - the assasination of the president and the calls for bloodshed using a pirate radio station (which in the film is voiced chillingly enough to make you believe these are actual recordings from the genocide you are hearing). The subject matter itself needs no elaboration, it would be impossible to make the events more poignant by over-dramatisation. When watching the evacuation of the western journalists in the film i felt echoes of the excellent 70's movie about genocide in cambodia - The Killing Fields, when the journalists moved out (with their dogs) leaving the natives behind to die. Let me say now that i feel the Killing Fields is a far superior film. Hotel Rwanda does not let you go until the very end, at times it feels like the plight of the hotel 'guests' is hopeless (until you realise this is a Hollywood movie you are watching:)), the scene of the escaping UN convoy with refugees being attacked by hundreds of machete wielding madmen is terrifying. Even if this film were absolutely direly acted and directed i would forgive it for two reasons, the first being that the genocide in Rwanda deserves to be recognised in film along with Cambodia/Auschwitz etc, the second reason is that this hotel manager is a true hero (not the clichy kind)and his story is an inspiration to the entire human race. Having said that the film itself was very good, the acting was fine and the film achieves it's goal of psychological transplantation, you feel you are 'there'.