Kinyarwanda: Dramatizing the Rwandan Genocide of the '90s

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"Little Ish," one of the Rwandan orphans.

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SIFF Cinema Uptown

511 Queen Anne Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98109

Category: Theaters

Region: Queen Anne

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Runs at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown, Fri., Dec. 2–Thurs., Dec. 8. Not rated. 101 minutes.

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One of the goals of writer/director Alrick Brown's Kinyarwanda, set in the midst of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, is to remind us that ordinary human dramas continue to unfold against the backdrop of unthinkable horrors. So as machete-wielding madmen are slaughtering their countrymen and women, teenagers are falling in love (even across the very ethnic divisions enflaming the country), and married men are cheating on their wives. Culled from true stories and told elliptically in chapters (i.e., "She's Tutsi/He's Hutu") that flash back and forward through time, the screenplay is filled with moments both charming and horrifying, sometimes all at once. We see how a teenager's defiance of her parents saves her life, how a little boy's misunderstanding of a mob's fury leads him to bring the mob right to his home, and how a priest betrays the terrified crowd that has gathered in his church for protection, among other tales. Cast with both professional and novice actors (which results in uneven performances), the beautifully shot film is filled with exquisite moments—a man testifying of his crimes at a tribunal for reconciliation, his remorse wafting thickly off him; a gathering of teens breaking into a sing-along of Kenny Rogers' and Dolly Parton's "Islands in the Stream"; a wedding whose participants radiate such joy that it tilts the viewer's faith back toward trusting human nature.