Hotel Rwanda Summary

Genocide in Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda (2004) is a dramatic account of the obstacles Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu hotelier, was forced to overcome to ensure the safety of not only his wife Tatiana, a Tutsi, and their children, but also of countless refugees of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The film centers Rusesabagina's efforts to provide a safe haven at the Belgian-owned Hotel des Milles Collines in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, which is under constant threat of being overtaken by Interahamwe, the anti-Tutsi militia (Hotel Rwanda, 2004; Lovgren, 2004). Through the course of the film, it is made evident what factors contributed to the uprising and genocide in Rwanda that lasted from April 1994 until July 1994.

At the beginning of the film, which takes place before genocide breaks out, the Hotel des Milles Collines welcomes a BBC television camera crew who are in town to cover the...
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