Hotel Rwanda
2004  PG-13  DRAMA  2h 1min
CAST— Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Nick Nolte, Desmond Dube, David O’Hara, Cara Seymour, Fana Mokoena, Hakeem Kae-Kazim
MUSIC— Afro Celt Sound System, Andrea Guerra, Rupert Gregson-Williams  DIRECTOR— Terry George  BASED ON— True events

     Don Cheadle heads an excellent cast in this amazingly tense film set during the 1994 Rwandan conflict. He plays a hotel manager named Paul Rusesabagina— a Hutu hotel manager married to a Tutsi woman— when suddenly, the dam bursts and the seemingly unavoidable conflict begins. The Hutu government begins harassing, persecuting, even killing the Tutsi people just because they are Tutsi. Paul feels that he must protect his family at all costs, but Tutsi friends and neighbors come to him for help, because he’s the only Hutu that they can trust. He just wants to protect his family, but he can’t leave all of these people to die. All he can do is use his hotel to try to wait out the storm. He started out to save his family, but throughout the course of the conflict, he helped to save over a thousand lives. Amazingly enough, this is not just a story told through film. It’s based upon actual events, and sitting through the movie, watching the horror of the conflict, remembering the accounts of genocide, it can be quite emotional. We may be reminded of current events, of how the types of events depicted here did happen/are happening. Yes, the film packs quite an emotional punch. It may leave you feeling a bit drained, but the film leaves a message you won’t soon forget.
OUR RATING— ****