Hotel Rwanda (2004)

We went to see this film today.

Wow! What an experience it was. Usually Verity and I discuss a film after we've watched it and compare our reactions. After watching this today we found not a word to say.

It is profoundly moving in many ways. I enjoyed the main protagonists ability to negotiate so cleverly from positions of utter powerlessness. I felt the build up of hatred realistic, tangible and terrifying. There were few cardboard characters, even the motivation of the most brutal, avaricious, vengeful and cruel was believable. The frustration felt at the utter indifference of the west by those who were betrayed, coupled with their helpless dependency brought a vivid light to what it was like to be utterly ignored by those believed to be friends.

The stark moral choices were those that I think most of us would fear ever to confront, knowing how little how we would actually behave in that situation.

The acting was superb.

I think that everybody ought to watch this film - not least to learn more of just what it means to be human.

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It is an unalterable law that people who claim to care about the human race are utterly indifferent to the sufferings of individuals - Quinten Crisp, Resident Alien *