SOMETIMES IN APRIL

US, 2004, 140 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Raoul Peck.

Writer-director, Raoul Peck, was asked by Home Box Office, on the strength of his films on Lumumba, to make a film about the 1994 Rwandan genocide when militant Hutus massacred almost a million Tutsis and 30% of the third tribe, the Batwa (Twa). There have been documentary models of films portraying 20th century genocides (Shoa, S 21), fictions (Sophie’s Choice), docudramas (Schindler’s List) and biographies (Hotel Rwanda, The Killing Fields). Peck has opted to tell a family story set within the broad historical, political and social context of this small country of central Africa. The result is a profoundly moving experience, putting a human face on the suffering brought about by fanatical and brutal atrocities.

The screenplay veers between 2004, the tenth anniversary of the genocide, opening with a teacher and students watching a tape with a 1994 speech by President Clinton. The Hutu teacher (Idris Elba) remembers his military career, his Tutsi wife (Caroline Karemera), his children, his radio personality brother who had embraced and fomented the Hutu ascendancy. We see the horrible killings through the teacher’s memories although he still does not know the actual fate of his family. But the audience does.

Intercut with the barbarity of the killings are sequences of US and UN action and inaction, especially in the US State Department where a sympathetic bureaucrat, Prudence Bushnell (Debra Winger) tries to raise US consciousness beyond the rescue of American citizens and declaring to the media which side are the ‘goodies’. Also intercut are 2004 sequences of trials being held in Tanzania where the teacher’s brother has now pleaded guilty. The challenge is how to acknowledge the truth, whether forgiveness and reconciliation are possible, and how to build an inclusive Rwandan future – finishing with an image of teacher and students enjoying Charlie Chaplin tweaking the pomposity of tyrants in The Great Dictator.

The cast performs with both humanity and dignity. The visual portrayal of the killings is graphic but restrained enough for most audiences to be able to watch the film – which they should. They will grieve at such prejudice and inhuman cruelty.

1. The impact for a 21st century audience? Africans? The world at large? The memory of the genocide in Rwanda? The message never to forget?

2. The focus on Martin Luther King, civil rights, the impact in America? The reflection on Africa? The world, nations, the United Nations, the US and Europe? The response of the West to Rwanda, slow, critical, talking instead of acting?

3. The filming in Rwanda itself, an authentic look, cast? The perspective of the director and his films about Africa? The musical score, the soul music? The soul of Africa?

4. The overview of the history of Rwanda, the explanation of the history of the tribes, the influence of Belgium and colonialism, European powers, dominance? Favouring one tribe over the other? The exploitation of Africa, greed, arrogance of the Europeans and colonial assumptions, racism? The consequences for the Hutus, for the promotion of the Tutsis?

5. The structure of the film: the opening in 2004, the history of Rwanda since the genocide? The return to 1994? The intercutting? The effect of seeing the interconnection between the two periods?

6. The film as an indictment, a document of history, society, evil, brutality and grief?

7. The focus on Augustin: as a teacher, the opening, his class in 2004, the video of Bill Clinton, the questions for the kids, his own memories? His character? The Hutu, his relationship with his wife, with his boys, with his daughter? At home, the daughter and school? His relationship with his brother? His work, the men? The training, the military background, his devotion to the military? The introduction of the machetes? The rumours of war and violence? His friendship with Xavier and their being a team? The counterpoint of 2004 on this military perspective? 2004 and his relationship with Martine, a new relationship, new family? His letter from Honore? His not willing to go, the audience not knowing why, eventually going to visit him in Tanzania, in prison, his walking away? Going to the court? Going to his room? The discussions with the witness, the effect on him? Going to see Honore, hearing his story, seeing his grief? The memories of his wife? The shooting, the hotel and surviving?

8. The role of Honore in the uprising, in the genocide? The impact of the radio, the people listening, his being a radio personality, acclaim, going everywhere and people welcoming him? His ethos, the party, fomenting racism and violence? The American perspective on the radio and hate radio? The audio clips from his programs? Augustin and the car, the phone? The boy shot? Honore’s escape to Italy, his arrest? Guilt, confession, the prosecution? The defence, that radio does not kill but people do? Finally with Augustin, the reconciliation?

9. Augustin’s wife, the home life, her being a Tutsi, the racial status of the children? Their being warned, the household, the rumours? The watching of the flight and the plane being shot down? The consequences? Trying to escape, the unwilling help from the neighbours? Honore and the car, the boys? The groups on the roads, taking hostages? The priest, the help? The grenade?

10. Martine, the school, the teachers, the nuns, the girls gathering together? In the hall, the stance? The massacre of the girls? The daughter’s escape with the other, her dying? The woman helping though fearful of her husband? The swamps? Martine surviving?

11. The portrait of the military, the officials? The arrests and shootings, the roadblocks and the drinking, the confrontation with Xavier, his trying to defend himself, his being shot? The cruelty? The school? The farmers?

12. The trial, the finale and the people giving witness? Martine and her witness?

13. The need for the trials, their effect? The possibilities of reconciliation?

14. The effect on Augustin, his life before the genocide, his joy in family, career, his land? The extraordinary disruption? Audiences understanding the genocide through sharing Augustin’s experience? The visualising of his wife’s death, the church, the priest? His boy shot, the violence towards his daughter? His survival, the support of Martine, the reconciliation with Honore?

15. His showing the scene from The Great Dictator and the children laughing at the mockery of the humour? The message in these final images of such a powerful film?