I watched this movie last week and I have been thinking about it all through. I was going to write about it on tuesday but I watched The boy who harnessed the wind and was lost in the moment, but even after the calm this movie still lingers in my mind and I must admit it was one interesting movie. This movie is all about the growing ethnic war and politics in Africa, and it also doubled as a true historical event that a lot of Africans might have forgotten or do not even know. The movie tells the story of what happened in 1994 when the country of Rwanda was in chaos with ethnic war.
Paul, a hotel manager in one of the most luxurious hotels in the country, deals with wealthy politicians and finds himself in the middle of the war, he first thinks he would be safe because of his connections but finds out he was utterly wrong.When the president of Rwanda was assassinated, everything escalated into chaos as people were killed like nothing, brought out of their homes to die just because of their ethnicity making almost nowhere safe for citizens.Paul decided to make the Hotel a refuge taking in civilians who were able to escape the brutal genocide and also uses his connections to provide food and water for the refuges in his hotel.
A hotel that was supposed to be meant for luxury now turned into a refuge because Paul could not stand and see people die when he could do something about it. Things became so intense that a lot of the foreign people were evacuated by their government leaving the citizens of Rwanda to their fates.Things even become worse when Paul had to start negotiating with the militants just to keep the people in his hotel safe. But things take a U-turn when during one of Paul's trips to secure provisions only to discover the road was bad and sinking, when he goes to investigate he discovers an horrifying truth, the road was damaged but littered with bodies. The bodies were what was used to fill up the road which was a horrific site.
This was what made Paul realize that just staying put was no longer an option and evacuation was the only way forward. But it also created another problem because evacuating was even more difficult. I would have loved to say how they eventually got evacuated but I think I have left enough spoilers. However Paul was one character that showed that you don’t need powers to be a hero, He was one hero who nearly lost even his family in the chaos. If you don’t like horror, you should stay away from this movie, but that would be sad because you would be missing a really great movie.
Rating 100/100
Images by IMDB
