Hotel Rwanda -- March 2005

GETTING US OFF OUR DUFFS

In his book Waking the Dead, Christian author John Eldredge says this in an effort to get us off our collective duffs:

“Wake up, O sleeper … Be very careful, then, how you live … because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:14-16). ‘Christianity isn’t a religion about going to Sunday school, potluck suppers, being nice, holding car washes, sending our secondhand clothes off to Mexico—as good as those things might be. This is a world at war. Something large and immensely dangerous is unfolding all around us, we are caught up in it, and above all we doubt we have been given a key role to play.’

We see just this theme played out in the movie Hotel Rwanda, unfortunately not one of the Best-Picture nominees for the year 2004. It should be, though.

Hotel Rwanda is about the genocide that took place in the small African country of Rwanda in 1994, when almost a million people were killed. The minority Tutsis had been prominent during Belgium’s colonial rule, but the majority Hutus gained power when independence came. As the film opens, the Hutus are trying to massacre as many of the Tutsis as possible. Main character Paul Rusesabagina is the manager of a five-star European hotel in the capital city, Kigali. The excruciating challenge for Paul is that his wife Tatiana, whom he loves deeply, is Tutsi, while Paul himself is Hutu. When the ethnic cleansing begins, Paul is willing to save only his family and friends, many of whom are Tutsi, but he soon undergoes a change of heart. The European staff of the hotel all depart, leaving Paul in charge, and he realizes what he has to do: make the hotel a refuge for the Tutsis, orphans, and nuns who are being persecuted: He is aided only by a few members of a UN peacekeeping force and must rely on his own resources. Paul is a good example of the kind of person who can literally save his portion of the world.

In the movie's most telling scene, Paul is having a heated conversation with a western cameraman who is filming the events. Paul says to the cameraman, "When the world sees what's happening, how can they not intervene?" The cameraman responds, "Oh, they'll look at the pictures and say, 'Isn't that horrible,' and then go back to their dinners." This is exactly the kind of comfort-induced sleep that John Eldredge is trying to wake us from.

American actor Don Cheadle plays Paul in one of the most convincing performances I’ve seen in a long time. British actress Sophie Okonedo does an equally fine job of portraying his wife. They certainly deserve the acting awards they’ve been nominated for, but they probably won’t win them. 

Film Rating: PG-13

My Rating: 3 1/2  stars

Highly Recommended