Cameron Crawford This film showed the good and bad times during the Rwandan Genocide. The film chose to leave out scenes of people dying, leaving the viewer to imagine the pain that the Rwandan people had to go through throughout the movie. This approach was somewhat confusing, because it made the genocide not seem as deadly as it actually was. "Kinyarwanda" decided to focus on the rehabilitation of the Hutu and Tutsi survivors after the genocide. This was shown through the re-eduKation camps. Previous men in the Hutu army had to apologize to the victims of the Tutsi deaths. One of the main characters, Jeanne, had her parents killed by a Hutu. It was a very powerful scene, mainly because of how sorry the man was, and how badly he wanted Jeanne to accept his apology. At first I was confused as to why the re-eduKation camp was in the movie, but the point of it was made very clear at the very end. It was made very clear that the Hutus wanted the Tutsi's forgiveness, because they were truly sorry for what they had done. Overall, this movie showed the brighter side of the Genocide, pertaining to the recovery and rehabilitation that occurred after the fact.

Elinor Overall I thought this was a very interesting film. I particularly liked how the film maker decided to use different stories in the film, and intertwined them together, as well as using flashbacks. This film showed many problems that went on during the Rwandan genocide, like the conflicting problems between the Hutus and the Tutsis. This film tried to show that with all the violence that went on during the genocide, and some of the people who decided to act violently by murdering their own people, there were others who decided to risk their lives in order to save the ones who were about to get murdered. This portrayed that the genocide was not all bad, there were people who decided to help others who were in danger of getting killed, like the military soldiers who were trained in Uganda, and decided to rescue the people who were in the middle of the genocide, but were not a part of committing violent crimes, and murder. This film showed how religious freedom and peace was an important role for those who were against the genocide, and the ones involved in it. This film is not American, but it does share some similar things to American films, like the happy ending at the end of the film, most American films have happy endings, so it was interesting to see that as well in this film, and how they spoke both English and Kinyarwanda. I would not change anything about this film, and therefore would give it a 4/5 stars.

logatherum I liked this film, and my favorite part was when one of the men said "do not mistake the actions of God with the actions of man", which I thought was interesting, especially for a religious figure to say, since people often mix up the two. I also noticed that there were a few different stories going on, which I had never seen before! I thought that the director putting titles before every story was so helpful and reminded me of a documentary, which also made the film that much more realistic. I thought it was probably a bit more realistic than Hotel Rwanda, too, which was pretty obviously an American film. The ending in Hotel Rwanda was a little happier and did not have nearly as much gore, I think I liked Kinyarwanda a little more. I appreciate the realistic aspect, and I find it interesting when films do not follow the Hollywood plot line that I am so used to and that I expect! I also feel that we owe the victims the truth, and putting a happier spin on the Genocide like Hotel Rwanda, is kind of degrading, since it's just simply not what happened. We did not really see any character deaths in Hotel Rwanda (other than when Paul drove down that road) yet people were dying everywhere and it was so brutal. We also did not get to see the extent of the brutality in Hotel Rwanda. I did think it was sweet when the girl forgave the man for killing her parents, as well because I did not expect it.

rpm235 I went to a screening of this film with the director and cinematographer who did a great Q&A. It simply blew me away. It's full of incredible and moving performances by a cast of mainly first-time actors. It's a series of expertly interwoven short stories -- all based on true stories -- each of which will stick with you. It's a gripping, suspenseful tale that also does a remarkable job of showing the humanity, the hopes, the humor, and the dreams of Rwandans. Hearing how this film got made so beautifully at such a low budget was truly inspiring. Filmmakers should go see it to see what is possible to do on a low budget these days -- though really anyone with a dream would be well-severed to watch it.