Sometimes in April

Where the Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda was something akin to a Schindler's List set during the 1994 genocide in the titular central African nation, this similarly fact-based and powerful HBO film follows the tragic paths of one family torn apart by that same tragic event, in which 800,000 ethnic Tutsi were massacred by forces of the once-oppressed Hutu majority. Idris Elba (TV's The Wire) and Oris Erhuero give emotionally gripping performances as brothers Augustin and Honoré, the former a hesitant Hutu soldier with a Tutsi wife and the latter a radio host who helped stir the angry, machete-wielding masses to slaughter. Writer-director Raoul Peck (Lumumba) holds nothing back as he traces the body count (280,000 dead within 15 days) through the fates of Augustin (who survived despite being branded a traitor) and his wife and children (who did not). Parts of Sometimes in April also take place in 2004, during Honoré's tribunal as Augustin (now a teacher) seeks closure. Although the film effectively taps into the fear and horror of being trapped in the carnage, its immediacy is diminished by cutting away to Washington, D.C. for a subplot (starring white B-list stars Americans can recognize) about the failure of the UN and the Western world to intervene (a valid but overly blunt point, and the difference in scale between the two storylines throws the movie off balance). Both Sometimes in April and Hotel Rwanda are equally poignant, equally well-acted by their entire casts, and almost perfectly compensate each other's flaws. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a director's commentary and a slick HBO "making-of" featurette. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a solid film.] (R. Blackwelder)