Sometime in April: A movie about the Rwandan Genocide.

[OLOL]

Last night, I watched a very touching movie that I rented from Hollywood videos: Sometimes in April about the Rwandan genocide.

 

It had such a painful effect on me that I sometimes was emotional and crying. I remember going to see the movie Hotel Rwanda the first night it was released. Shockingly, I was also so emotional watching it and sometimes laughed in the theater in some scenes. But this movie had a different feeling. I have seen different interpretation of this horrible tragedy.

 

The story in this movie had a extraordinary effect on me. It made me feel sorry for humanity. I cried for Rwanda, Bosnia, Chechnya, Somalia and all other African countries who went to similar tragedies.

 

As the picture starts, it talks about the occupation of the country first by Germans who turned it over to the Belgians. The movie narrator let us know in a very convincing way about the whole European colonization was all about exploitation, greed and power. The so-called civilized and Christian white men from Europe came to convert the pagan African “savages†and open up new lines for commerce. Unfortunately, the colonizers turned their African subjects into beats and treated them like they were sub-humans. They pitted Rwandans against each other by using the standard model of “divide and ruleâ€.

 

Unfortunately, After the Europeans left, taking everything of worth they could lay their hands on, their lessons of hatred and barbarity were continued by their victims: The majority Hutus labeled the Tutsi “cockroaches†A war of genocide began to cleanse the land of the favored and privileged Tutsi colonial “collaboratorsâ€.

 

In this movie, you will definitely understand the roots why we “Africans†are all still caught up in these horrific ethnic and tribal wars.

 

The movie’s main characters are two HUTU brothers: One is a journalist, the other a soldier. Surprisingly, The journalist becomes a member of some hateful Hutu clique that espouses the conflict-ridden colonial thinking of “us against themâ€.

 

His brother,the soldier, on the other hand, is against such an evil. He is determined to be a professional military man trained to defend his country and people. He is more tolerant and more open-minded than his brother. He is married to a lady from the rival tribe and is the father of three kids.

 

A psychologically contradictive drama divides this mixed family apart and it had some resonance in my mind and my childhood upbringing. In one of the memorable and emotional moments of the film, one of the sons asks his father whether they are Hutus or Tutsi. The father answers him back, “I’m Hutu and your mother is Tutsi. That makes you Hutu, according to our tradition.†Not pleased with such trivial answer, the son again asks his father a very intellectual question: “When I grow up, will my identity card say ‘Hutu’?†And his father replies, “Yes, but I hope one day it will simply say ‘Rwandan’.†It really reminded a conversation I had with my father early in my life.

 

Sadly, this intelligent father’s and his inquisitive son’s dream is never realized;he and his brother and sister are slaughtered and butchered into pieaces simply because of having a Tutsi blood and look. Their Tutsi mother is brutally maimed and commits suicide later. The Rwandan army blacklists the father of the boys as a sympathizer.

 

I don’t want to spoil the movie for you guys but I will urge every one to see it. It is a very painful and compelling movie that will change your whole view about tribalism and African ignorance.

 

The movie was about Rwandans killing other fellow Rwandans. If you just replace the words “Rwandans†for “Somalis†you can understand why it brings tears to my eyes. In our ongoing and senseless civil war in Somalia, it is still the same “Somalis killing other Somalis†simply because the "others" were born to another clan and came from another region.

 

There are no winners in such mindless bloody inhumanity and hatred. It is a no-win situation.

So please let us all work to enlighten our nomadic folks who are still caught in this ignorance. Please go and rent the video or watch it on HBO. It will help you to see why we are so messed up.

[Reality Check]

I want to watch this movie. Maybe this weekend!

[Pacifist]

Watched it couple of months ago. Olol good choice. Shows the reality of what happened in Rwanda. Seriously though made me cry for hours. And sadly to begin with I was the emotional type.