Starring: Don Cheadle, Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix
This film, about true events, focused on Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan hotel manager who took in over a thousand Hutu and Tutsi refugees during the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s.
I thought it was really excellently done; the acting, with a few exceptions, was really excellent, the script was “believable” in that it wasn’t cheesy at all, and it had interesting themes and good characters. Speaking of characters, though, apparently the film wasn’t particularly historically accurate, especially when it came to the portrayal of Rusesabagina. The real Rusesabagina is a highly controversial figure. Some survivors claim that he was a horrible man who threatened to kick them out of the hotel if they couldn’t pay food and rent bills; he was a prominent member and supporter of Hutu Power political parties; and to top it all off, he was arrested in 2020 for charges of terrorism, kidnap, arson and murder against innocent and unarmed Rwandans. The captain of the UN group who helped evacuate the Rwandans from Rusesabagina’s hotel said once, “I can testify that I personally was not able to watch that movie beyond a point as I found it so repulsive for its untruthfulness”.
All of that said, the film itself was extremely well done. Shocking historical inaccuracy aside, I would have to give Hotel Rwanda a very well deserved 5 stars.
