Hotel Rwanda

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Hotel Rwanda ★★½ 2004 (PG-13)

Cheadle gives a remarkable performance in a drama that covers a too-little-known episode in recent history. In 1994 Rwanda, a former Belgian colony, members of the Hutu tribe killed some 800,000 members of the once-dominant Tutsi tribe. Paul Rusesabagina (Cheadle) is a Hutu, who manages a fourstar hotel in Kigali. When the genocide begins, he fears for his own family since his wife, Tatiana (Okonedo), is a Tutsi. Unable to escape or to get any help, Paul decides his safety depends on business as usual (and bribing the military) even as he comes to shelter some 1,200 refugees within the hotel. Film focuses on Paul and not on what is happening in Rwanda in general. Without some historical background, the general viewer will likely be somewhat confused. 110m/C DVD . GB IT SA Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Rafael (Leaf) Phoenix, Nick Nolte, Desmond Dube, David O'Hara, Jean Reno, Cara Seymour; D: Terry George; W: George Pearson; C: Robert Fraisse, Naomi Geraghty; M: Andrea Guerra, Rupert Gregson-Williams.