4 Star Rating Hotel Rwanda:

4-19-17
Review by: Kate Burke
Hotel Rwanda by: Terry
Movie Review
George

Movie Synopsis:
Hotel Rwanda is a story of the Rwandan Genocide. It depicted how families were torn apart, and
resources were scarce. The movie starts showing a successful hotel with a loving family working
and running the hotel. They begin to hear horror stories on the radio, the Hutu army were angry
and preparing to attack. They soon hear that the Presidents plane has been shot down. With the
president dead, the Tutsis have lost their source of protection and safety. The Hutu extremists
begin running around, machetes in hand, ready to slaughter and kill all Tutsis in their way. They
are killing the Hutus hiding Tutsis, they are exterminating the, coach roach race of Tutsis. The
hotel has begun serving as a refugee camp, but the Interhamwe and Hutu soldiers arent allowed to
come on the grounds, as the hotel manager has UN soldiers and guards protecting the hotel
grounds. They are orphans, and tons of homeless people living in the hotel. The UN then
transports white travelers out of the country and to a safer location during the genocide. The
native Rwandans are forced to hide and find safety in this time of crisis with little or no help from
foreign countries. The UN later helped to transport many Rwandan families out of Rwanda and
into neighboring countries, among these families was the hotel manager.

Movie Review:
Hotel Rwanda was a very well done movie. I highly recommend this movie. It helped to give a
visual representation of what was happening during the Rwandan Genocide. Often, we read
stories and articles of past events such as the Rwandan genocide, but its difficult to truthfully
understand the extremity of what happened during this time without a visual representation. Hotel
Rwanda not only portrayed the events during this time, but it also should how it affected families
by focusing on a family struggling in this time. The storyline of a struggling family trying to
reconnect with lost members of their group was an emotional story, and the depiction of the
Rwandan genocide was a story and visual that I wont forget.

Connection to Left to Tell:

Hotel Rwanda and Left to Tell were both very alike. They both told a tale of experiences during
the Rwandan Genocide. While each experience was very different, they both helped
readers/viewers to understand and appreciate the severity of the time. Both, Left to Tell, and Hotel
Rwanda depicted stories of the Rwandan Genocide, the two stories were also very different. That
is to be expected because, many people go through similar struggles, experiencing similar things,
but the stories they tell after tend to be very different.
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