Talk:Sometimes in April

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[edit] Comments

I just finished watching Sometimes in April on HBO. The movie is haunting and leaves one with a sense of the injustice of the war in Rwanda. It makes a comparison between what is happening in the United States during the time and what is going on in Rwanda. They show the bureacrats of the state department arguing for the US to remain out of the war. It is interesting to me that we are fighting a country, Iraq, who's leader was accused of genocide. We claim that we want to make the world safe for democracy. We want to export freedom and our American way. It is truly sad to know that genocide still occurs and we do little or nothing to stop it.

I heard President Paul Kagami of Rwanda speak last spring. He spoke about the healing process in Rwanda. Currently Tutsis and Hutus live together. This movie showed the community courts where people have a chance to tell their stories and point out their murderers. The movie does not explain what is happening. I heard about it from President Kagami.

Seeing the movie leaves me with many questions. Where do the victims stop and the murderers begin? In an environment of "kill or be killed," does anyone make rational or just decisions? Are we all capable of being pushed to the edge as these people were? What led them to the path of genocide? How long with the recovery process take? What can we do to help them now to recover?

President Kagami said that is was the result of French colonialism. The French set the Tutsi people above the Hutu. This led to hatred and discrimination from the Hutu. The eventual erosion of the society when the French left Rwanda precipitated the genocide.

Can we as Americans believe that we must change the world and yet refuse to help those most desperate?

Julia

Furthermore, it also was the belgians because they conquered Rwandda and caused the bloodshed between tutsi and hutu by practicing divide and conquer. On the other hand the French also armed the Hutu genocidal government and they were thus responsible for the killings of up to a million people in 100 days.

[edit] True Story?

I don't know where this "based on the true story" and "biographical" stuff is coming from, but the film is not either of these things to the best of my knowledge, so I've removed these statements. I remember the director saying (on a commentary or interview) that the characters of Honoré and Augustin were based on real people, but that they are more of an amalgam of several people than a direct biography. The point was not that this particular story was true, but more that it was representative of the stories of many Rwandans.

If there is evidence to the contrary, please share it. -Fadookie Talk 04:01, 9 February 2007 (UTC)