Gilbert Ndahayo

Since 2006 and his debut film ‘Scars of my Days’, Gilbert Ndahayo has been acknowledged as a pioneer in Rwanda’s film industry.

The first thing you do in the morning?
I enter www.google.com and type my name. I call this practice ‘mirror talk’: what people talk about me, and what people might have said I said. Then I read The New Times website.

What makes your day bright?
Nothing but glass of fresh milk in the morning! There was a time when I was a slave to beer and I would drink a bottle or two every morning.

Your favourite meal…
Ugali and chicken!

Your saddest moment…
Dropping out of school in my final year at Kigali Institute of Education (KIE), in the faculty of History and English.

Your greatest fear…
Becoming a celebrity.

You’re great at…
Preparing a variety of local and foreign foods.

What keeps you awake at night?
Editing my own films and cooking.

What does love mean to you?
Everything is fine.

What is your favorite word?
It’s a saying: "Some men see things as they are and say why - I dream things that never were and say why not?” (George Bernard Shawn)

Your most unappealing habit?
Revealing my future projects. Henry Ford once said, "You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” True!

Your bar in Kigali…
Chez Lando.

What is the closest you have come to death?
April 1994 when CND’s RPF positions were being attacked by the Interahamwe militias. Some colleagues and I hide in a building and blocks fell on me.

What do you intend to be in ten year’s time?
I have no idea. I don’t want to think about it. From far, I’m coming; far away I will go! The sky is not even the limit.

When did you last cry, and why?
Saturday, July 5, 2008, in Chicago at Swissotel when I was presenting my film ‘Behind This Convent’. There was a girl in the audience, she cried until the end of the movie: 110 good minutes. Her situation touched me, and soon I broke down in tears.

To whom would you most wish to say sorry, and why?
My late sister Rosine Hakizimana. She was 16 when she was killed during the Genocide. We spent our youth fighting one another, arguing over who is elder and disagreeing.

It was fun but I fear to have been hard on her. I wish I could say sorry.

Ends