Hotel Rwanda

"When people ask me, good listeners, why do I hate all the Tutsi, I say, "Read our history." The Tutsi were collaborators for the Belgian colonists, they stole our Hutu land, they whipped us. Now they have come back, these Tutsi rebels. They are cockroaches. They are murderers."
- a Hutu radio announcer

This 2004 Oscar contender has Don Cheadle as its prime actor. Set in the 1994 Rwandan history of Tutsi genocide that left a million and a half dead, Hotel Rwanda is a raw portrayal of the violence that grips a nation still smarting from its colonial past. As hotel manager of the four-star Hotel Rwanda, Paul Russesabagina has made numerous and often helpful connections with the military and business circle. He knows the byways of illegal trade and can get around restrictions with bribe ranging from 10,000 franc Cuban cigars to expensive Champagne.

Inside, Paul is just an ordinary decent family-loving man who just wants to live his life. He is a Hutu who marries a Tutsi woman, the beautiful Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo), and has three children. When the Hutu rebellion erupted in 1994, Paul is confronted by a difficult decision: to save his own family and flee or save his countrymen including his "enemies" the Tutsis.

Called by critics as a modern-day Schindler, Paul takes in all the Tutsis he can cramp inside the abandoned Hotel Rwanda (Belgians and other nationalities are safely evacuated out of the country). Now, Paul has to use his intelligence, compassion and connections to buy the lives of the Tutsis from imminent death by the hands of the Hutus. All would have been fine had not an arrogant and treacherous Hutu concierge threatened to tip him off to the police if he sent the former away from the hotel.

Violence escalates when the Hutu renegades break into the UN peacekeeping forces and begin harassing and bombing the hotel to wipe out the littlest Tutsi hiding there. Even Paul's own relatives and family are threatened by Hutu militia and he is rendered powerless before them. His desperation mounts as he learns that even his former friends can't do anything to help him.

A tale of riveting suspense and harrowing drama. A film that everyone should see...

Written and Directed by: Terry George
Cast: Don Cheadle (Ocean's Eleven/Twelve). Sophie Okonedo, Nick Nolte