KINYARWANDA

Rwanda, 2011, 100 minutes, Colour.
Cleophas Kabasita, Cassandra Freeman.
Directed by Alrick Brown.

There are both a Hutu priest and a Tutsi priest in Alfrick Brown’s collection of interconnecting memoir stories Kinyarwanda (2011). Brown is from Jamaica, but his film contains the stories of locals by locals. As regards priests in this context, with the heritage of Belgian colonial Catholicism, there is comment on the massacres of Tutsis in churches attacked and burned by Hutu gangs. The Tutsi priest appears in several of the memoirs in Kinyarwanda. He takes shelter in a Church but is advised at length by a Hutu priest that there is great danger for him and that there have been brutal killings. The Hutu then lets the soldiers into the Church, but the Tutsi priest has gone. Perhaps the Hutu was warning the priest or was threatening him, or something of both.

The Tutsi priest is a very serious man. After he flees the Church, he joins a group on the run but is finally captured, rounded up with a large number of prisoners in a camp. At times, he offers his blessing but does not relate strongly. Perhaps he has been traumatised.

One of the principal features of Kinyarwanda is the presentation of the Mufti, of a local imam who tries to get food and aid from the UN, of a meeting of Muslim leaders who share stories and make a resolution to write to all people to come to the aid of all refugees, Tutsi, Muslim and Toa, to respect them and their right to live.

In the camp, the young woman, Jeanne, who had appeared in the opening story, slipping out to meet friends dancing and listening to records, only to witness a massacre on the way home with her Hutu boyfriend and then find her parents dead in the house. She approaches the priest for confession. Despite his severe look, he offers fine priestly advice to Jeanne who confesses to deceiving her parents and regretting that she could not say goodbye to them. He tells Jeanne that both God and her parents have forgiven her – and for her penance, she should forgive herself.

The imam gives the priest a gift. He protests that it is not necessary. The fact that it is not necessary, says the imam, means that it is a gift. The gift is an alb and a stole and the imam urges the priest to vest for the people and we see them standing together, clasping each other’s hand.

While several priests were found guilty in courts for participation in the massacres, here is an image of a Tutsi priest, who is embodies priesthood values and an image of God’s forgiveness.


1. The title? Information about the language? A story of Rwanda? The unity of the country, the tribes? The vision and genocide? Colonial history and Belgium?

2. The question of how the genocide was possible? The Belgians, favoring the Tutsis, not the Hutus? The Hutu resentment? The radio campaigns, the government, the military, the local gangs?

3. The location photography, realism? re-creation of the era and the events? The village? Churches and mosques? Streets and roads?

4. The interweaving of the different stories? The shifts in time and the connections?

5. Young people, the dancing, the contemporary music, Jeanne, the young man and his attraction? A microcosm of the young before the genocide? The young man and Jeanne leaving, walking, witnessing the executions? The return to this sequence later, especially with the priest and would happen to Jeanne? The bashings? The couple and the kiss, Jeanne going into the house, the discovery of her dead parents?

6. The insertion of the post-genocide camp? The re-education? The men, the names? The lecture? Rose and her giving the lecture and later learning about her? The dancing, the football? The suicide?

7. The mufti, the desecration of the Koran, his family, the little girl, the belt? Later taking up this theme?

8. The church, the priest, a Hutu, his severe talk about the killings? Warning the priest? Letting the soldiers in? The Tutsi priest and his escape, fleeing, hiding, joining with the group, caught, the soldiers and the abuse? The performance by the witch? The imam and the mosque, shelter?

9. The shelter, the imam’s wife as the witch? The soldiers’ fear? The priest and his blessings? Jeanne and the boy? The role of the imam, the phone calls, needing food, asking the U.N.? His discussions with the priest? The character of the imam, the character of the priest?

10. Lieutenant Rose and Sergeant Fred? The massacre, flight in 1970 to Uganda? The Patriotic Front, the training in Uganda? Brutality? Rose not wanting to be judge? Justice rather than vengeance? The men, the priest’s presence, his blessing? The plan to get the people out, 3000? The armed militia? Fred taking point, wanting to go home, his baby? Fred’s speeches, didactic, rhetorical? Is important? Rose, her husband, his infidelity, not seeing her son, his not recognising her and calling her aunty? The phone call and the baby?

11. The operation, dark, the style of photography, the action, over the wall, the wall, the opening, letting the people out, the Hutu guard shot, the slow motion, Fred being wounded, Rose and the gun, pieta image?

12. She’s Tutsi, he’s Hutu? The party, the celebration, the request for the marriage, the flashback, the husband and his mistress, saying it was a mistake, asking pardon, Jeanne and her being forbidden to go out?

13. The guns, the appellation of cockroaches, the animated sequence and its effect? The football, cigarettes, denial, the flashbacks? Jeanne in the car with her friend, the jealousy, Emmanuel, his saying that cockroaches should be raped? The boy, leading people, the lollipop? His explaining the guns and showing them the video? The real cockroaches?

14. The mufti, listening to the radio, the little girl confessing to desecration the Koran? The issue of telling the truth? The imam’s visit?

15. The important discussions, helping the Tutsis, the saying: never confuse the actions of men with the words of God? The issue of three tribes in Rwanda, adding the Muslims, adding the Toa people? The background of the buildings, measuring noses, waists, and where people worked? The Hutu short? The Toa eating bark, making pottery?

16. The letter to everyone urging the fight against injustice, the right to live, help and mutual respect, the core values of Islam? The meeting, getting to know one another’s stories, everybody in the mosque?

17. Jeanne, Catholic, her confession to the priest, saying she lied, regretting having no chance to apologize? The priest offering her forgiveness, God and her parents had forgiven her? The penance: you must forgive yourself? lighting the candle, no proper goodbyes? The imam asking a priest whom he confess to because he was the only priest? The imam’s gift? The priest saying it was not necessary, but that is why it was a gift: a stole, and alb? His dressing to be the part of the priest? The priest washing, meeting the others, the vestments, the Our Father? while next door the Muslims were praying to Allah?

18. The two leaders shaking hands, Rose’s arrival, Fred and his support?

19. Emmanuel, the flashback, his Hutu ruthlessness, his jealousy of Jeanne and the family, causing her parents’ death, the slap and the massacre?

20. Emmanuel asking forgiveness, wanting to rebuild, Jeanne and her forgiving him?

21. The marriage and a request, the happy marriage, Jeanne and the young man, the touch of Romeo and Juliet? Appropriate for hope for ending for this film?