Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire

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Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire ★★★½ 2004

In 1992 Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire went to Rwanda to help save their tormented people only to find his pleas for humane intervention from the U.N., the U.S., and other world powers blatantly ignored. He was not given authority to confiscate Hutu weapons and his soldiers dwindled quickly with no replacements being sent, but he chose to remain in country, trying to save as many lives as possible. As the General returns to Rwanda a decade after the civil war slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, his words along with archival footage give a brutal recounting of atrocities that were given but a flash in Western news reports. Deserved winner of the Audience Best Film Documentary award at Sundance. 91m/C DVD. D: Peter Raymont; C: John Westheuser; M: Mark Korven.