In part one of this three-part reflection, I recalled the horrendous, government sponsored genocide in the spring of 1994 in Rwanda, when upwards of 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu sympathizers were slaughtered by their Hutu neighbors while perhaps 500,000 women were raped. As people have tried to come to terms with such an atrocity over nearly two decades since it transpired, two quite different responses by the film community have come forward, responses that have been shaped by their differing intended audiences.
In part one, the focus was on two films that were intended for North American viewing, given that while the genocide was taking place, those in the West remained silent and inactive, either by ignorance or neglect.
Now in parst two and three, we’ll turn to Rwandan films whose intended audience is primarily Rwandans. Though made for Rwandans in Kinyarwanda, these films are available on DVD with English subtitles and are moving testimonies to the resilient human spirit.
The process of reconciliation – of repentance and forgiveness – is key to the humanity and health of those of us in the West. However, given the scope of the tragedy and the interdependent world in which we live, the rebuilding process is perhaps even more difficult for the Rwandans themselves. How are they to deal with the atrocities they witnessed and participated in? How are they to deal with their neighbors, whether victims or victimizers? What might the future look like for them both? Again, filmmaking has played a small, but significant role in helping Rwanda move beyond its deep tribal divisions and find a surprising, if fragile, unity.
Kinyarwanda
Kinyarwanda (2011) is a small, independent film that was written in two weeks, prepped in one week, and shot in 16 days in Rwanda using both professional and amateur actors. Produced and conceived by Rwandans with a Rwandan crew consisting mainly of heads of departments who had previously only been assistants to assistants on other movies, one might think the movie had little hope of being coherent, let alone significant.
But this would be wrong. Winner of the world cinema audience award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011, as well as similar awards at the AFI Fest and the Starz Film Festival in Denver, the movie is uneven but deeply moving.
The movie benefits from several things. With a budget of $250,000 and support from the European Union, the Association of Muslims of Rwanda, and the Rwandan government, the movie had more resources than most independent films, particularly in Africa. Moreover, with a Rwandan location and largely Rwandan company, the sense of authenticity conveyed by the film is both intense and personal. Viewers sense that they are watching a film made in Africa for Africans.
According to director Alrick Brown, the cast and crew struggled personally with their own memories and demons during filming. Yet, the executive producer, Ishmael Ntihabose, a young Rwandan filmmaker who had worked on three previous Rwandan genocide films as an assistant, decided in this film not to emphasize the genocide’s death and violence (though that is everywhere present as the backdrop), but instead to hold up a human possibility – to show the importance of forgiveness and faith. His goal, he said, was to portray the reality of Rwanda’s remarkable efforts at unity and reconciliation, both as encouragement to his own people and to provide lessons to other societies suffering their own conflicts.
Ntihabose writes in the film’s press kit, “Because forgiveness, truth and reconciliation are such a huge part of Rwanda’s journey, it is also an important part of this film. We hope that audiences can bring some of that ‘power of forgiveness’ into their own journey.”
Though a Rwandan film, key to the success of the film was Ntihabose’s decision to go outside the Rwandan pool of talent and hire Alrick Brown, a Jamaican graduate of NYU’s film school, as screenwriter and director. Working with an intense schedule, Alrick listened to the extensive collection of stories Ntihabose had gathered from survivors as well as to individuals represented in Kagali’s Genocide Museum. Taking these, Alrick mixed fiction and history to create six different story lines, interweaving them together into one larger narrative, in the style, as he has said, of Crash, Amores Perros, and Pulp Fiction. And perhaps as importantly, Alrick then trusted cast and crew to fill in the story lines with nuance and dialogue that was true to their own experience.
The chief protagonist in the film is Jean (Hadidja Zaninka). As the movie opens, she has gone on a date and is seen dancing, singing, and laughing with friends. But reality swiftly changes as she comes home to discover her parents have been butchered by a Tutsi killing unit. She will eventually confront another of the central characters, Emmanuel, the man who murdered them (Edouard Bamporiki). But first she must learn to survive, and that will mean eventually offering Emmanuel forgiveness.
Other story lines involve a Catholic priest, Father Pierre who learns the importance of forgiving one’s self; the Muslim Mufti of Rwanda who tells his people to protect all Tutsi for this is what Allah wants; Lt. Rose who heads a Hutu military unit that seeks peace, not bloodshed, even rescuing Tutsis from certain death and later working on the truth and reconciliation process in Rwanda; and finally, the small boy, Ishmael, who, innocently, after he hears soldiers saying they are searching for guns and cockroaches, almost gives away the hiding place of the Tutsi’s his father is hiding. His quick thinking, however, brings not only a smile to the viewers face, but redemption to the situation.
Three themes stand out in the movie: first, the importance of Rwandan unity. As one of the characters says in the movie, “There are no Hutu, Tutsi and Twa [the pygmies in Rwanda] anymore… There are only Rwandans.” Though the movie mentions the Belgium colonizers as seeking to divide the Rwandan people by tribe, demanding that they always carry and show their tribal I. D. cards, the filmmakers see a different future for Rwanda, a country where unity and reconciliation are possible.
In an interview for the Sundance Film Festival, Ntihabose said, “Rwanda is now a peaceful country. A country with one identity, one language and with good governance. We’re moving on from grief to a brilliant future – other countries which experienced internal conflicts should learn from our experience.”
Whether this is a slightly rosy picture of Rwandan reality can be discussed, but it is a fact that no one today identifies themselves by their tribal ancestry – they are simply Rwandans. And there is no question that this is the theme of the movie. The film’s title, Kinyarwanda, is the name of Rwanda’s common language, something its two major tribes have always shared. Here is a concrete expression of that greater unity Rwanda is now living into.
A second theme within the film is forgiveness. With some villages estimated to have had 60-70% of their population clinically depressed following the genocide, Rwandans realized that they could not afford to be mired down in sorting out justice. Things were simply too difficult and perhaps too messy.
Instead, repentance and forgiveness were necessary, both with regard to others and to one’s self. In the posters that were produced for the movie, the words “Love,” “Hate,” “Forgiveness,” “Vengeance,” “Life,” and “Death” are superimposed over the images of the main characters, and the tag line is added, “There is always a choice.”
As the movie draws to a close, Emmanuel is asks Jean and her people to forgive him through the reconciliation process, and Jean responds with her pardon. She says he will be her friend, as once he was a friend to her father and mother. “And I will respect you.” The movie closes with Jean about to be married, sharing a drink with the now older Ishmael, and there is again dancing. She has found peace.
Thirdly, the movie portrays the power of inter-religious cooperation – in particular, the role of the Islamic people in Rwanda in protecting mainly Christians who were threatened with death. During the genocide, the Mufti of Rwanda, the most respected Muslim leader in the country, issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims from participating in any way in the killing of Tutsi. As the slaughter raged, it was the mosque that became a refuge for not only Muslims but Christians, not only Tutsi but those Hutu who also wanted peace.
Kinyarwanda brings to life this historical reality, showing the Grand Mosque of Kigali as a place of sanctuary and the Imams cooperating with Catholic priests in working for peace. The fact that the movie does not exaggerate the positive role that Muslims played during and after the conflict is supported by the marked increase of Muslim adherents in Rwanda after the cessation of violence – from 8 to 14% of the population by one estimate.
Here is a movie that shows Rwanda in a positive light. With life under siege, we see people making wise choices against all odds – to love and not to hate, to offer forgiveness and not vengeance, to choose life and not death. I was reminded of Dame Wisdom’s words in Proverbs 8:32-26,
And now, my children, listen to me:
happy are those who keep my ways.
Hear instruction and be wise
and do not neglect it.
Happy is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
For whoever finds me finds life
And obtains favor from the Lord;
but those who miss me injure themselves;
all who hate me love death.
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In the spring of 2011, Reel Spirituality hosted Alrick Brown for a screening of his film at the Pasadena campus of Fuller Theological Seminary. The discussion with Brown that followed the screening is included below. – Editor
