For all its technical simplicity, this documentary features two unlikely Texas transplants, Cambodian native Sichan Siv and Burundi-born Gilbert Tuhabonye, both of whom just so happened to survive mass genocide in their respective home countries. The stories of both Siv and Tuhabonye are equally beyond belief, not only because of the untold evils they witnessed but also how they escaped and eventually relocated as asylum seekers (and now thriving citizens) of the United States. Siv was only a kid when his family was caught up in the post-Vietnam War Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia led by mass murderer Pol Pot, was actually captured by the Rouge while attempting to ride his bike to Thailand (and freedom) and was being hauled in the back of a truck surely on his way to a death camp. He managed to escape, walking for three days with no food or water until he crossed the Thai border to safety, eventually getting his chance to come to America and study at prestigious Columbia University in New York and would go on to a job at the UN and then in law enforcement in West Texas. Tuhabonye’s story is no less harrowing: in 1993 he was a star teenage athlete in Burundi when one day civil war broke out and Hutus began massacring Tutsis en masse.
By sheer guile, Tuhabonye was the only one in his school who managed to survive being burned alive. But his grim determination eventually landed him in the US Olympics training program as a long-distance runner, and then he got a student visa to study in America. At the time of filming he was a successful track coach and author in Abilene, Texas, and comfortably settled into the American way of life. The documentary is at its most compelling when focused on the harrowing and inspiring life stories of Siv and Tuhabonye. There’s also peripheral commentary throughout the film from assorted academics and history students contemplating the definition of genocide and emphasizing the importance of teaching youngsters how such catastrophic world events come about. However, the film’s purely academic aspects can only seem extraneous in the face of Siv’s and Tuhabonye’s unforgettable first-person testimony to the horrors of modern-day genocide. Recommended. Aud: C, P.