Kinyarwanda

Although not a big budget film like the harrowing Hotel Rwanda—a dramatization of the genocidal Rwandan civil war of the 1990s—the indie Kinyarwanda, which was filmed on location in Africa with the cooperation of Rwandan citizens and authorities, succeeds on its own quietly devastating terms. Director Alrick Brown, drawing on true stories from the conflict, renders the narrative as a short-subject anthology with recurring characters. As a pirate-radio hatemonger directs Hutu militias where to strike next, a Tutsi girl sneaks out to attend a forbidden party—and comes home to slain parents. A guileless Hutu child on an errand acts as a guide for the death squads when he misunderstands what and whom they are hunting. A badly flawed and fearful Tutsi priest is among the Christians saved from execution by the courageous intervention of both a village "witch" and the imams of the Kigali Muslim community. Survivors on both sides must come to terms with what has happened, and the viewer senses that even the film itself—honoring acts of mercy and humanity alongside the machete terror—is part of the healing. Highly recommended. (C. Cassady)