On October 19, the highly acclaimed film about the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) liberation struggle ‘The 600’ debuted on Amazon Prime in North America, where viewers who have not watched the movie yet can now access it.
The producers of the movie described the debut of ‘The 600’ on Amazon Prime as ‘huge’, with viewers expected to pay $4.99 to rent it or $7.99 to buy it and other options for those who have not watched the film, which was released in July 2019.
"Huge news for #The600Film in North America: starting October 19, @PrimeVideo subscribers can stream the movie for free. If you haven't watched 'The 600: The Soldiers' Story', yet, this is your chance. Share with your followers in North America!” the producers of the film tweeted.
"#The600Film features real stories of rescue, sacrifice, and courage from real heroes. The first-hand accounts of those who sacrificed to save others during Rwanda's 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi are more important now than ever. Streaming from October 19 on @PrimeVideo,” Amazon Prime Video announced.
About the film
‘The 600’ focuses on the little-known story of a surrounded battalion that started the counterattack to end the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
Before the Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi started on April 6, 1994, the 600 strong 3rd battalion of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) was guarding opposition political leaders in the capital city, Kigali, as part of a peace process to install a new coalition government after a civil war.
They were an isolated force far from the RPA headquarters near the Ugandan border, 83 kilometres to the north, and they were surrounded by as many as 10,000 soldiers of the government army known as the FAR of the Hutu government, who were well supplied by the French.
The RPA attracted Tutsi exiles and followers from Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, and Rwanda (including opposition, the Hutu), as their mission to return exiled Tutsis to Rwanda and reverse the policies of an increasingly violent Hutu Power government that endangered the lives of the over 1.3 million Tutsi left in Rwanda.
For years, Hutu Power leaders trained local militias and their Army to carry out their own solution to the RPF’s mission—the full-scale massacre of every Tutsi in Rwanda.
On the night of April 6, after extremists downed the plane carrying the then-President Juvenal Habyarimana, who was taking part in peace talks in Arusha, the army and militias began targeting assassinations of moderate Hutu leaders and prominent Tutsi, and then indiscriminate massacres of Tutsi civilians across the country at an alarmingly fast and brutal pace.
And then, the army launched an all-out attack on the surrounding RPA battalion at the parliament.
‘The 600’ is the story of this battalion, which held out for several days, and the relief forces of the RPA, who raced to save them from the North.
It’s the story of the daring rescues made by the RPA, while under enemy fire of thousands of civilians around Kigali trapped in churches, the stadium, and their homes who were facing certain death.
In doing so, this force of men and women were able to begin the counterattack that drove the Army and the genocidal government from Rwanda, and bring the Genocide to an end.
The documentary tells the story of a young, well-disciplined, politically educated army, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save Rwanda from one of the worst events in human history.
It focuses on the most desperate moments, when it was unclear if the Hutu Power Genocidal forces would not only succeed in massacring every Tutsi man, woman, and child in Rwanda, but also defeat the RPA and extinguish all hope for so many.