Hotel Rwanda Analysis

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Hotel Rwanda is a film based off actual events that occurred during the spring of 1994 in Rwanda. During that time, tensions were high between two groups, the Hutu and Tutsis. Out of hatred, resentment, and jealousy, the Hutu soldiers, called the Interahamwe, performed mass killings throughout the area. Their killings was geared toward the Tutsi civilians of Rwanda. During all this, Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of the Sabena and owner of a luxury hotel, Hôtel des Mille Collines, protected and housed hundreds of Rwandan refugees. He had to overcome many obstacles, but in the end, his family along with many refugees were safe. The genocide had many long-term and immediate causes. After the country was colonized, hatred between the groups began …show more content…
A constant obstacle he faced was having to choose between his family and other refugees. One of these moments was when he was put at gunpoint and told to shoot his family, friends, and some refugees. Being a strong and intelligent man, Rusesabagina was not going to give up that easy, so he tried his best to trade money and other trinkets for the safety of the people. He was told he could only save his family, but in the end he succeeded in saving them all. Rusesabagina also had a very hard time taking care of and providing for the hundreds of people in the hotel. When running low on provisions, he had to barter for food from the dangerous Hutu militia and bucket the water out of the hotel pool and boil it for drinking water. He also ran out of room for all the people. Though he had a decent sized hotel, it was not meant to hold almost thousand people, so many were cramped in small rooms or forced to sleep in hallways. One of his other obstacles was staying positive in all that was happening. Rusesabagina had small children and a Tutsi wife that were in grave danger throughout the movie, and he saw and experienced many horrific things that greatly frightened him. Despite the constant setbacks like other countries deserting the rwandans, daily attacks on the hotel, and gory scenes of mass …show more content…
The long-term causes began in 1916 when the Belgian government took over Rwanda, and evidently, named the Tutsis superior. For about 20 years, the Tutsis lived lives full of power, privilege, and opportunities despite that they were the minority in Rwanda. This favoritism greatly upset the larger part of the population which was Hutu. The Hutus were mistreated and had little power or privilege in government and rights, so in 1956, they partook in a series of riots that killed thousands of Tutsis. In 1962, Rwanda gained its independence and the Hutu majority took back power. There were also many immediate causes of the Rwandan Genocide. Just before the massacres began, the United Nations were brokering a peace agreement between the Hutu leaders and Tutsi rebels in Kigali. After the agreement was signed, the president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana, was killed when his plane was shot out of the sky by Tutsi rebels. The Interahamwe now began to say over the radio “We must cut the tall trees”, meaning they would kill the Tutsis. It was the beginning of the genocide and the unfolding of their plan of “final solution”

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