SCREENINGS & MEANINGS

By Gerald Schmitz

Choosing the freedom to forgive

Kinyarwanda
(Rwanda/U.S. 2011)

As much as the Sundance festival currently underway showcases new independent features, getting Canadian distribution remains problematic even for prize-winners. A case in point is last January’s recipient of the world cinema audience award, Kinyarwanda (http://www.kinyarwandamovie.com), a remarkable Rwandan co-production that has at last received limited release stateside. Appearing on Roger Ebert’s top 10 of 2011will hopefully propel it further.

The title refers to the Bantu language spoken by almost all Rwandans, Hutu and Tutsi. Inspired by actual stories and events, director Alrick Brown, working from a screenplay co-written with executive producer Ishmael Ntihabose, brilliantly interweaves multiple narratives from the 1994 genocide into an unforgettable drama of human solidarity in the midst of horror leading ultimately to reconciliation. A central character in these connections is a Tutsi teenager, Jean, who is in the first blush of love with Hutu boyfriend Patrique. It’s an incredible performance by Hadidja Zaninka. Relating how he discovered her as she was walking past the casting office, Brown told me: “There was a miracle that happened every day to keep this film alive.”

Kinyarwanda opens on what seems a typical April day. A group of youth are dancing to the infectious beat of a pop song. There’s a knock at the door and it’s Jean, greeted with a grin as “Joan of Arc.” The radio switches to a rant about seeking out “cockroaches” before someone flips it back to a ditty about love and peace. We’ve already heard Jean’s voiceover of the scene: “The funny thing about genocide is you never know who’s knocking.” As Patrique (Marc Gwamaka) walks her home after dark, they pause briefly in the shadows as a group of people are detained in the street by armed men. Patrique signals a greeting before they hurry away. In a silent house Jean calls out to her parents, a mixed Tutsi-Hutu couple seen in a later flashback discussing their dilemma.

She finds them gruesomely hacked to death in a bedroom. Staying out late has saved her.

Cut to a post-genocide “Unity and Reconciliation Re-eduKation” camp where a woman is addressing young male inmates, killers undergoing rehabilitation. She is speaking about the hard stages required for healing to take place. “Forgiveness is asking for a miracle . . . at times it is more painful than the wound we suffered itself.” They respond by confessing to committing horrendous atrocities, chopping people on their knees, slaughtering babies. They sing together about building a new Rwanda as a “paradise on earth.” But one also attempts suicide.

Kinyarwanda then shifts back to relate how Muslim leaders became crucial protectors, rising above the murderous Tutsi-Hutu divide that was a racist colonial Belgian invention. Mufti Cheikh Tembo (Mutsari Jean) is scolding one of his children for defacing a Koran when a radio broadcast cuts in. A menacing cackling voice is boasting about the killing of hundreds of traitorous cockroaches being protected by a Catholic priest.

We move to the circumstances of the church where Father Pierre (Mazimpaka Kennedy) has been hiding out with frightened parishioners. Another priest, Father Bertrand, tells him of the risks he has taken to help him. But Father Pierre knows he is being called “brother cockroach” and flees before being betrayed as Father Bertrand opens the doors to a mob of Interahamwe (Hutu paramilitaries) led by ruthless commander Emmanuel (Edouard Bamporiki). It is a tragic fact that massacres occurred in churches and that priests and nuns were sometimes held to be complicit.

Father Pierre is among the group of surrounded kneeling fugitives that Jean and Patrique glimpse on their fateful walk. Emmanuel’s bloodthirsty gang has caught them and he feels only resentment recalling he had been a child in the priest’s church. Salvation comes from a strange quarter as a woman “witch” approaches casting deadly spells and screaming that “Satan is among us.” It’s a distracting ruse that allows the group to escape to Kigali’s grand mosque. Jean enters too, though Patrique cannot stay. While assistants fret about “no food, no medicine, no water” for a growing number of refugees, Imam Hassan is determined to provide sanctuary to all. “I don’t confuse the Word of God with the actions of man,” he tells Father Pierre, to whom he appeals to help people find comfort and not lose their faith.

The movie’s next section introduces a young Tutsi woman, Lt. Rose (Cassandra Freeman), who has joined the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) advancing on the capital to put an end to the genocide that western countries and the UN have failed to avert. In the account of the liberation struggle to stop the genocide her message is that: “We are not here for vengeance. We are here for justice.” How to overcome the burden of so many tragedies like that of Jean’s parents? Kinyarwanda shifts between narratives and timeframes to drive home that terrible reality through the interconnected personal stories of its characters. We perceive the issues and impacts in terms of individual lives.

KINYARWANDA TEAM — Writer director Alrick Brown with producers and cast of Kinyarwanda are pictured in this January 2011 photo from Sundance. Inspired by actual stories and events, Brown, working from a screenplay co-written with executive producer Ishmael Ntihabose, brilliantly interweaves multiple narratives from the 1994 Rwandan genocide into an unforgettable drama of human solidarity in the midst of horror leading ultimately to reconciliation, writes Gerald Schmitz. (G. Schmitz photo)

One of the most memorable sequences is when a small boy, Ishmael, is accosted by a gang of killers that includes Patrique’s brother.

Demanding to know where are the “guns and cockroaches,” the boy leads them back to his house. He puts in a tape of a violent Hollywood movie and points to insects on the floor. The family is actually hiding some Tutsis.

Another extraordinary sequence provides insight into the urgent discussions that take place among Muslim clerics as they grapple with the orgy of violence and take risky decisions to open their doors to the endangered of all faiths. Their choice is put succinctly by the Mufti: “If I don’t fight injustice, who will do it?” He issues a crucial fatwa to the Muslim population.

In the sanctuary of the mosque, Jean approaches Father Pierre to hear her confession that she never had a chance to apologize to her parents for staying out late with her boyfriend. He tells her, “for your penance you must forgive yourself.” She will do much more. Tensions mount as the mosque is surrounded by an armed mob. In simultaneous prayer, Muslims and Christians face the menace together. Just in time RPF soldiers arrive, Lt. Rose among them. The people are saved but their celebration of freedom from fear is just the beginning of the road back for Rwanda.

What will happen to those like Emmanuel who confesses, “I don’t remember the number of people I killed”? There is a flashback to the killing of Jean’s parents and then the young man approaches her to ask for forgiveness. “From the bottom of my heart I pardon you,” she tells him. The wrongdoer and the wronged are able to embrace in a dance of forgiveness. Those 100 days from April to July were certainly terrible enough to lose all faith and question God, Jean’s voiceover concludes.

Yet, as the love story resumes with a joyous wedding ceremony, Kinyarwanda expresses hope that evil can be vanquished and humanity redeemed.

Following the Sundance screening director Brown was almost overcome with emotion. He told the audience, “there were scenes when we did them that we had to walk away they were so intense.” After he spoke with me about the life-changing process of making the film in Rwanda — a 16-day shoot during the rainy season — supported by a small grant from the EU’s Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights.

Brown had served as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, but nothing could prepare one for the heart-wrenching stories of survivors that form the dramatic elements of Kinyarwanda. He hoped its powerful interfaith theme would resonate in getting the film to broader audiences.

Conveying deep truths that “there is always a choice” and “forgiveness is freedom,” Kinyarwanda relives moments of real human tragedy, solidarity and transcendence — of love prevailing in a time of terror. This astonishing achievement truly touches the soul.

Recommended in theatres: Shame, A Dangerous Method, Surviving Progress, The Iron Lady, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Haywire.

Schmitz is an ambassador member of the Canadian Film Institute. He will be attending the Berlin International Film Festival Feb. 9-19, 2012.