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A tale that needs to be told over and over again. Hotel Rawanda tells the true story of Paul Rusesabagina who ended up making the hotel he ends up managing into a safe haven for Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the Rawandan genocide of Tutsi tribe members at the hands of Hutu armies during the mid-1990s. Himself a Hutu married to a Tutsi, this film vividly and nail bitingly documents the painstaking efforts Rusesabagina made to safeguard the people staying as 'guests' in his hotel as well as his wife and family. Fortunately, his efforts were largely successful as many of the people he took in survived. The film is marvelous in many ways. The acting and directing is superb and it seems no expense was spared in this film's production. I think Terry George was right to pick Don Cheadle for the role of Paul Rusesabagina and he, as well as the other cast members, did an excellent job with their parts. The whole film is a gut-wrenching reminder of the effects of extreme tribalism as well as the backlash against colonialism. From what I have gathered with my brief reading of Rawandan history, the Tutsis were always the more affluent class whos members made up the monarchs that ruled in Rawanda while the Hutus role was that of the commoners. Both groups mostly got along until their region was conqured by the Belgians in which the Belgians ended up favoring the Tutsis for positions of power during their occupation. This favoritism on the part of the Belgians as well as the forced dividing of the country's resources ended up leading to the tribal friction in Rawanda which came to a head during the time when this film takes place. The French are also to blame for the violence that took place there too since (while not directly addressed in the film) they supplied the Hutus with their military know-how and equipment which was used in the slaughter. There have been some reviews that compare this film to that of "Schindler's List" and, in some ways, it deserves that comparison. But I also think its a good way to demonstrate how very bad times can bring out the best in people. Especially during times of strife like what happened in Rawanda. Paul Rusesabagina, Oskar Schindler and others like them deserve immortalization so that, hopefully, others will follow their example and we can all learn from this and other tragic lessons of history.