Two Interesting Movies

Here are 2 movies of true stories related to genocide, thought some of you might be interested.

The first, Hotel Rwanda tells the story of Paul Rusesabagina who sheltered hundreds of people in the hotel where he worked. I found it especially frustrating watching the bit where all the white westerners were evacuated, and how the UN force was a Peace Keeping contingent which meant they had no powers to fire weapons or engage in combat unless they were fired upon... which also meant the UN peacekeepers were forced to stand by and just watch Rwandan's dies. In one part of the moview when Paul asks a photojournalist how the rest of the world cannot intervene, Joaquin Phoenix's character says "...they'll say 'Oh my God, it's horrible' and then they go on eating their dinners..." which I think sums up pretty neatly how we do all react when faced with things like that. Unless we're affected directly, we tend to be upset and angry for about 5 minutes and then go back to our regular lives.



The 2nd movie is The Last King of Scotland which doesn't focus so much on genocide but is the story of a Scottish doctor who's chosen as the personal doctor for the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. I found it fascinating watching the difference between the charasmatic, popular Amin and the paranoid, ruthelss Amin who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans. Another example of Western governments knowing what was happening (the British this time) and choosing to pretty much ignore it. There are some pretty graphic scenes towards the end of the movie...