Hotel Rwanda free essay sample

Hotel Rwanda is set in Kigali when there was a chaos in 1994 between the two ethnic groups in Rwanda, Hutu and Tutsi. The story itself centers on Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), a manager of an extravagant Des Mille Collines hotel in Kigali. The problem between the two ethnic groups arises when the Hutu extremists set out a plan to eradicate all the Tutsis in Kigali. The Hutu extremists even propagate the message that all Tutsis are worth nothing and calling them â€Å"cockroaches† through a radio station. The atrocities escalate when some of the Tutsi rebels murdered the President of Rwanda. Since then, the Hutu extremists became more violent toward the Tutsis and began their genocide of the Tutsis. After that, Paul has to do everything that he can to protect his family. Paul himself is a Hutu, however, his wife, Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo) is a Tutsi. Although in the beginning Paul only wanted to protect his wife and his three children, his conscience made him protect his Tutsi friends and neighbors as well. We will write a custom essay sample on Hotel Rwanda or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He bribed the militia to spare his family and his neighbors lives and brought them all to Des Mille Collines hotel. During the atrocities, instead of helping, all of the United Nations officials are called back and the European guests and staffs are being evacuated from Rwanda. Rwanda was left to solve its problem without any help. This left Paul in charge of the hotel all by himself. Soon after that, more and more people are coming to the hotel and ask for protection. Thus, the hotel became a refugee camp for around 1000 people. With his intelligence and his overseas political contacts, Paul is trying to save his family and other people from the atrocities of the Hutu extremists. After being threatened by the militia for protecting the Tutsis, in the end Paul managed to save his family and more than 1,200 refugees. Despite only centered around one character, Paul Rusesabagina, Hotel Rwanda gives a clear picture of what happened during the 1994 Rwanda chaos. It highlighted the genocide that occurred because of the separation between the two ethnic groups, and each group thinks they belong in Rwanda more than the other. The film is also successful in showing up the atrocities caused by the ethnic conflict, and stirs the audience emotion and conscience. The division between Hutu and Tutsi has already existed long before the Belgian occupation, but the Belgian made the gap between the two groups larger by privileging the Tutsis more than Hutus (http://www. heinonline. org. ezproxy. lib. monash. edu. au/HOL/ Page? handle=hein. journals/jrefst9div=28collection=journalsset_as_cursor=9men_tab=srchresults). This ethnic division has sparked problems for years. Then, after the Belgian left Rwanda, the political power was given to Hutu group. This gave way to the Hutu extremists who believe that Rwanda is a Hutu land to perform anti-Tutsi propaganda and started the ethnic cleansing. The process of democratization after the Belgian left might be one of the cause that triggered the ethnic conflict in Rwanda. As stated in one of the reading in the Unit Book, many scholars agree that democratization can be problematic in multi-ethnic societies, and often exacerbates existing ethnic problems (Brown, 1997). In the case of Rwanda, when the Hutu gained political power, the ethnic problem between that group and the Tutsi intensified. Furthermore, Brown stated in his article, â€Å"Ethnicity and Violence†, that when the military of a country is loyal to a single ethnic group, then there are prospects of ethnic conflicts that will be hard to manage (Brown, 1997). This problem can be seen in the film, the militia favored the Hutu and contributed to the eradication of the Tutsis. As a result, the ethnic conflict that led to genocide was unavoidable since the military was supposed to help diminish the problem instead of contributing to the conflict. The plot in â€Å"Hotel Rwanda† flows smoothly from the beginning of the ethnic problem in Kigali to the height of the conflict that leads to genocide. The film shows the already existing ethnic problem in the beginning, to the way the military react to the ethnic group, and the genocide that happened soon after that. All of that highlight the causes of the ethnic conflict that are stated in the article â€Å"Ethnicity and Violence†. In conclusion, the film â€Å"Hotel Rwanda† did a good job in portraying the actual ethnic conflict that happened in Rwanda. Although the story itself centered around one character in the film, but the plot can emphasize the