Back in 1994, atrocious violence and genocide overtook the African country of Rwanda. Rwanda’s two major ethnic groups, the Hutu and Tutsi, broke into full-fledged war, the former massacring the latter en masse. Director Terry George’s Hotel Rwanda focuses on a Shindler’s List-esque tale of heroism from the more than three-month-long tragedy, which left some one million dead.
Don Cheadle portrays Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the Belgian-owned four-star Hotel Mille Collines. Bartering high-end booze for favors from authority figures, accustomed to pleasing even the most high-falutin’ rich guests, he’s an expert at public relations. However, Paul’s abilities and humanity are put to the test when violence erupts. Determined to eradicate them from the face of the earth, the Hutus round up and slaughter the Tutsis mercilessly (with crude, ten-cent machetes, mostly). Paul’s neighbors and own family are at risk: wife Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo) and her brother are Tutsi. Holing up in the Mille Collines, Paul offers as much sanctuary to Tutsi people as there is space. But only for so long will the Hotel be a safe haven. U.N. peacekeepers are forbidden to intervene, much to their own disgust and sorrow. The Belgian hotel company execs (one played by Jean Reno, a small but pivotal and moving role) do everything they can from Europe but find their hands tied. And Paul’s booze supply dwindles, leaving him short of favors from former ‘friends.’ As bloodthirsty rebels close in (and a hateful Hutu staffer betrays him), Paul decides upon painful sacrifices for the sake of his precious guests and family.
This film is a harrowing record of humanity at its worst and, to a lesser degree, its finest. Cheadle is superb as Rusesabagina. He fully inhabits this real person, and his performance, from the Rwandan accent to an utterly heartbreaking sequence where he forces his wife to promise to jump to her death rather than be captured and tortured, is an organic, Oscar-worthy one. As for the world’s unforgivable passivity towards Rwanda’s holocaust, motivated by racism and a lack of ‘what do we get out of it’ payoff, it’s articulated by superb supporting characters: Nick Nolte as an appalled U.N. soldier, and Joaquin Phoenix as a journalist.
There are run-ins with plenty of corpses, and you certainly witness brutal instances of man’s inhumanity to man, but having seen actual footage from such massacres (and the visceral Schindler’s List), audiences get off pretty easy. Still, not so for the world and certain governments, which hopefully will regard Hotel Rwanda as a lesson.