At first the stories in “Kinyarwanda,” which is mostly set during the Rwanda genocide of 1994, appear to be separate vignettes. We meet a few characters here, a few more here, and so on.
When it becomes clear that the stories will all tie together, the horror of the situation becomes somehow even more terrible. This movie follows in the footsteps of the interlocking narrative of “Crash,” but with rather more weight behind its purpose.
I said “mostly set” during 1994. We also see scenes from a later date, when a particularly charismatic member of the U.N. peacekeepers (Cassandra Freeman) is leading a reconciliation and forgiveness session with men who are guilty of atrocities. This becomes more charged when we see her in scenes from 1994, and her own wartime experiences.
Elsewhere, one of the most poignant story lines follows two young lovers (Zaninka Hadidja and Marc Gawanka), who couldn’t be more typical of lovestruck teenagers anywhere else in the world. Except that, at this moment, the fact that her father is a Hutu and her mother a Tutsi means that something awful is in store.
There’s also a story in which religious leaders, Muslim and Christian, attempt to trust each other as they look for shelter for their followers. In this one, the talk of religions coming together has a more heavy-handed approach.
Director Alrick Brown offers just the right amount of background on what led to the eruption of violence, as characters describe the class distinctions enforced by the Belgian colonials who ruled Rwanda before the country became independent. This is done is such a way that it feels believable as conversation, and not just exposition for the audience’s sake.
In various scenes, we also hear the radio broadcasts that urged Hutus to kill “cockroaches” (their inflammatory name for Tutsis), with their machetes if necessary. It was one of the factors that fed into the explosion of hatred and bigotry.
This is the first feature by Jamaican-born, New Jersey-raised Brown, and he’s very thorough in how he puts the pieces together. It might all be just a little too comfortably worked out, in fact, which is a young filmmaker’s tendency. But given the enormity of the subject, you can hardly blame the director for wanting to bring it all together for the biggest possible impact.
“Kinyarwanda”
During the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, a few stories weave together as terrible violence erupts. Director Alrick Brown’s film takes the “Crash” approach to interlocking narrative, and while it all generally works out the way you’d expect, the situation is powerful. In Kinyarwanda and English, with English subtitles.
Rated: Not rated; probably R for violence.
Showing: Uptown.
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