Hotel Rwanda Essay
Kaila Thomas
Hotel Rwanda Essay The film Hotel Rwanda should be used in a world history program because it accurately depicts a significant historical event that people should be informed about and reflects several major themes of world history.
The movie begins in Rwanda in the early 1990’s, when racial tensions between the two major ethnic groups, Hutus and Tutsis, have led to a civil war. After the Hutu president is killed, Hutu extremists begin a mass-slaughter of the Tutsis. Paul Rusesabagina, who is the manager of the Hotel des Milles Collines, is a Hutu, but his wife is a Tutsi. Tutsi neighbors run to Paul for shelter from the extremists, and at first, Paul is reluctant to provide them protection in the Milles Collines, but as the massacring intensifies and more and more innocent people need protection, Paul opens up the hotel to over 1,000 refugees. Paul struggles each and every day to protect the people living there, which include his family. The UN is unable to protect them, since they aren’t allowed to try to stop the genocide. But with help from UN officer Colonel Oliver, Paul is finally able to leave the hotel with the refugees and enter into safety.
This film was fairly accurate. The characters behaved in ways that were fitting for the situations they were in, and the movie paid attention to details that were crucial to the events of the genocide, such as the RTLM “Hutu Power” radio broadcast, which “brainwashed” ordinary citizens into participating in the killings. The most important historical inaccuracy was the relationship between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The film made it seem as though there was very little social friction between the two groups, when in reality, they were very much divided. Before Europeans ruled in Rwanda, the Hutus and Tutsis were very loosely divided, but when the Germans came, they “…heavily favored the Tutsis and exacerbated and codified the formerly flexible divide between the two groups” (Carnegie Council). After
Hotel Rwanda Essay The film Hotel Rwanda should be used in a world history program because it accurately depicts a significant historical event that people should be informed about and reflects several major themes of world history.
The movie begins in Rwanda in the early 1990’s, when racial tensions between the two major ethnic groups, Hutus and Tutsis, have led to a civil war. After the Hutu president is killed, Hutu extremists begin a mass-slaughter of the Tutsis. Paul Rusesabagina, who is the manager of the Hotel des Milles Collines, is a Hutu, but his wife is a Tutsi. Tutsi neighbors run to Paul for shelter from the extremists, and at first, Paul is reluctant to provide them protection in the Milles Collines, but as the massacring intensifies and more and more innocent people need protection, Paul opens up the hotel to over 1,000 refugees. Paul struggles each and every day to protect the people living there, which include his family. The UN is unable to protect them, since they aren’t allowed to try to stop the genocide. But with help from UN officer Colonel Oliver, Paul is finally able to leave the hotel with the refugees and enter into safety.
This film was fairly accurate. The characters behaved in ways that were fitting for the situations they were in, and the movie paid attention to details that were crucial to the events of the genocide, such as the RTLM “Hutu Power” radio broadcast, which “brainwashed” ordinary citizens into participating in the killings. The most important historical inaccuracy was the relationship between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The film made it seem as though there was very little social friction between the two groups, when in reality, they were very much divided. Before Europeans ruled in Rwanda, the Hutus and Tutsis were very loosely divided, but when the Germans came, they “…heavily favored the Tutsis and exacerbated and codified the formerly flexible divide between the two groups” (Carnegie Council). After