Shake Hands with the Devil - The Journey of Roméo Dallaire
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Shake Hands with the Devil - The Journey of Roméo Dallaire |
| Country of production | Canada |
| original language | English , French |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Peter Raymont |
| script | based on the book by Roméo Dallaire |
| production | Peter Raymont |
| music | Mark Korven |
| camera | John Westheuser |
| cut | Michèle Hozer |
| occupation | |
| |
Shake Hands with the Devil - The Journey of Romeo Dallaire is a Canadian documentary from the year 2004 with Romeo Dallaire . The theme is the coming to terms with the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, which is illustrated in retrospectives with archive material.
action
Romeo Dallaire was 1993-1994 General of the peacekeepers of the United Nations in Rwanda .
Ten years later, he and his wife are returning to the country that has shaped him forever. It seems like a return to hell to him. In interviews, Dallaire and other contemporary witnesses comment on tragic news images from that time.
Rwanda used to be a Belgian colony. After constant unrest between Tutsi and Hutu , a peace agreement was signed, but the situation remained tense. In April 1994, President Juvénal Habyarimana's plane was shot down with a rocket. Fighting ensued in the capital and the situation got out of hand. The genocide of the Tutsi and moderate Hutu began. Ten Belgian blue helmets from the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda , commanded by Dallaire, were killed. European countries sent troops to protect their compatriots. No reinforcements were made available to Dallaire to save the Tutsi. His poorly equipped peacekeeping mission failed and he watched helplessly as more than 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsi, were murdered in about 100 days because they were abandoned by the rest of the world. The United Nations decided to withdraw all but 300 blue helmet soldiers. Dallaire didn't force anyone to stay. Bombs fell around his headquarters. He was powerless, depressed, and blaming himself. On the front lines, he sought death.
Back home in Canada, Dallaire was suicidal because he felt he could not live with the pain of memory. He was depressed for years from the atrocities and attempted suicide. With medical help, he began to come to terms with the past. He wrote a book, turned to the media, and reported repeatedly as a witness. Dallaire tries to draw the public's attention to her failure at the time. He criticizes that the western world was not interested in preventing the genocide. In 1998, then US President Bill Clinton visited Rwanda with his wife. In a speech he was surprised by the speed and extent of the terror. The commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the massacre took place without the participation of the western world. Because of the suffering that Dallaire has seen, he came to the conclusion that there must also be the other side, the extremely good.
Reviews
- Phil Villarreal described the film as awful to watch in the Arizona Daily Star on June 30, 2005 , and that was exactly why it had to be seen.
Awards (selection)
- In 2005 the documentary won the Banff Rockie Award and Best Canadian Program at the Banff World Television Festival .
- In 2005 Michèle Hozer won a Gemini Award for best documentary editing.
- In 2005, Peter Raymont won the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Philadelphia Film Festival .
- In 2005 Peter Raymont won the Audience Award for the best foreign documentary at the Sundance Film Festival .
- In 2007, the film won an Emmy for Best Documentary , shared with the short documentary God Sleeps in Rwanda .
Background information
The film was shot for two weeks in Rwanda in April 2004.
In addition to the 91-minute English-language DVD, there is also a 56-minute television version.
The film is based in part on Dallaire's book Handshake with the Devil: The Global Community's Complicity in the Rwandan Genocide . It won the Canadian Governor General's Literary Award in 2004 .
In 2006, Roméo Dallaire joined the Canadian Senate after retiring from the army.
Another film adaptation of this material with support from Dallaire was made in 2006. Roy Dupuis played the lead role in this Canadian film Shake Hands With the Devil .
Web links
- Shake Hands with the Devil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Shake Hands with the Devil at Rotten Tomatoes (English)