Kinyarwanda (2011)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This film is very good. I believe its style could be described as emotional and sentimental. Much of it is in English but much is reading subtitles.The film did not go into very much broad historical detail about the event, such as the stocking of machetes in advance, the plane going down, the massacre of the Belgian soldiers, etc., which is fine because other movies and documentaries have already accomplished this. It does make verbal references to the "chopping", in the context of confessions. One person confesses to chopping off a baby's head. But there are only two scenes with violence or blood.What is different and interesting about this film in comparison with others of the same subject is the way the stories of individuals overlap. There is also a discussion among Imams about what to do, and a contrast in actions and attitudes of two Imams toward the same priest.I have a bad short-term memory which led to confusion but I will happily watch again. The minor flaws in this movie are outweighed by its intelligence and uniqueness, its inspirational characters, and its examination of repentance and forgiveness in the context of that event. The feel-good ending lets you view a lovely African custom.

This film showed the good and bad times during the Rwandan Genocide. The film chose to leave out scenes of people dying, leaving the viewer to imagine the pain that the Rwandan people had to go through throughout the movie. This approach was somewhat confusing, because it made the genocide not seem as deadly as it actually was. "Kinyarwanda" decided to focus on the rehabilitation of the Hutu and Tutsi survivors after the genocide. This was shown through the re-eduKation camps. Previous men in the Hutu army had to apologize to the victims of the Tutsi deaths. One of the main characters, Jeanne, had her parents killed by a Hutu. It was a very powerful scene, mainly because of how sorry the man was, and how badly he wanted Jeanne to accept his apology. At first I was confused as to why the re-eduKation camp was in the movie, but the point of it was made very clear at the very end. It was made very clear that the Hutus wanted the Tutsi's forgiveness, because they were truly sorry for what they had done. Overall, this movie showed the brighter side of the Genocide, pertaining to the recovery and rehabilitation that occurred after the fact.

Overall I thought this was a very interesting film. I particularly liked how the film maker decided to use different stories in the film, and intertwined them together, as well as using flashbacks. This film showed many problems that went on during the Rwandan genocide, like the conflicting problems between the Hutus and the Tutsis. This film tried to show that with all the violence that went on during the genocide, and some of the people who decided to act violently by murdering their own people, there were others who decided to risk their lives in order to save the ones who were about to get murdered. This portrayed that the genocide was not all bad, there were people who decided to help others who were in danger of getting killed, like the military soldiers who were trained in Uganda, and decided to rescue the people who were in the middle of the genocide, but were not a part of committing violent crimes, and murder. This film showed how religious freedom and peace was an important role for those who were against the genocide, and the ones involved in it. This film is not American, but it does share some similar things to American films, like the happy ending at the end of the film, most American films have happy endings, so it was interesting to see that as well in this film, and how they spoke both English and Kinyarwanda. I would not change anything about this film, and therefore would give it a 4/5 stars.

After watching Hotel Rwanda, this film gives you a different perspective. Hotel Rwanda seemed to show more of the rich people staying in the hotel trying to save their lives. Yes, they were being threatened but they did get to stay in a very nice hotel. Also, those people had very powerful friends who tried to help them. In this film it was different, the "average" person's life seemed to be on display. Some of the things that happened were really hard to imagine. Specifically, when a girl came home and both her parents were dead. She Left the house and never got to apologize to her parents. Then, later in the film she somehow forgave the people who killed her parents. Maybe killings are so common that people are just expected to not hold a grudge over that or something, but it seems like if someone had killed my parents I wouldn't have forgiven them just because they asked.