Hotel Rwanda Movie Review

The movie that I will reacting to is Hotel Rwanda. In this movie, the main character, Paul Rusesabagina, is a Hutu who manages the Hotel des Mille Collines and is married to a Tutsi woman with 3 children. Paul is faced with inner challenges as well as moral challenges when tensions rise between the Hutu and Tutsi people in Rwanda, leading to a civil war and later genocide. Paul’s marriage caused a lot of friction for him with Hutu extremists and he was often faced with the dilemma of saving himself or his family.

As the tensions in Rwanda rise, Paul and his family witness their neighbors and even friends being removed from their homes and brutally murdered. Paul obtains favor with people of influence by bribing them with money and alcohol, doing this he wants to maintain the safety of his family. Paul and his family are threatened many times, the first time led them to depart and find refuge at the hotel. More refugees come to the hotel to seek shelter and safety. Paul is made responsible for diverting the attention of the Hutu soldiers from the hotel and maintain the appearance of a functioning 4-star hotel. There are United Nations Peacekeeping forces present in Rwanda and at the hotel. The forces are led by Colonel Oliver, and they are unable to act assertively against and towards the Interahamwe (An anti-Tutsi Hutu extremist militia) because they had been given direct orders to not intervene. Instead of helping the Rwandan refugees, the foreign nationals are evacuated.

When the Rwandan refugees are finally to be evacuated, they are ambushed by the Hutu militia and are forced to return back to the hotel. After this, Paul speaks to and tries to negotiate with the Rwandan General Bizimungu, when his bribes are not accepted, he blackmails him with threats of being tried as a war criminal. After getting through to the General, in one last effort to save his family and neighbors, the hotel refugees finally leave the hotel in a United Nations convoy and travel through a mass of refugees and militia to reach safety behind the Tutsi rebel lines.

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