Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda was a difficult film to watch, because it just made me so sad. It is beautifully shot, well-casted, and well-scripted. Having to watch any people act the way that the Rwandans did towards their fellow man is always difficult and upsetting, but the situation between the Hutu and Tutsi of Rwanda seems so much worse, because there weren’t any real differences between them.

What shocks me the most about the relations between the people is that the differences seem to be almost completely social. There is some debate about the genetic differences, if any, between the Hutu and Tutsi. Some believe that The Tutsi moved in and set up a feudal system over the Hutu, and others say that the only difference was lifestyle and the physical characteristics that the Belgians used to separate them.

Either way, the divide seems no more created than the divide between, say, republicans and democrats. However, to the people involved, it’s a much larger divide – a racial one and a socioeconomic one. The Belgians turned it into this, however – before it was merely a lifestyle difference. Whether the differences are real or not, the Tutsi did rule over the Hutu in one manner or another, and the Belgians took advantage of this. The Tutsi/Hutu relationship was relatively peaceful until European colonialism.

The film highlights how awful the genocide was, and it shows a people divided by false lines that led to murder and mayhem. It’s amazing how mere social separation can lead to such violence. The international reaction, the way the film shows it, was cowardly and mainly because the people involved were black. As the general put it in the film, “You’re not even niggers. You’re Africans.” Though I don’t know if that’s really why no help was given, it’s difficult not to think that’s at least partially the case.

The film doesn't change how I feel about Africa, really, but I'd already seen it and had already studied Rwanda a bit. Hotel Rwanda definitely does give one an intimate look at the life in one war-torn African nation.