Perhaps it’s just curiosity, or maybe the obsession for cinemas. Whatever the reason, the culture of watching movies in public places is rapidly growing in the country.  

Despite lack of enough cinemas and theatres in Rwanda, movie lovers will go anywhere they can watch the movies from, whether it’s in the restaurant, bar or nightclub. And this is exactly what happened on June 4, when dozens of people flocked to the Kimihurura-based New Papyrus for an historic film drama movie.

The German movie, The White Rose, with English subtitles, was expected to draw a low turn up— but it has been a hot-button movie and to the surprise of Goethe-Institute, a German cultural centre in Kigali, which organises movie nights and various cultural events in Kigali, the event attracted scores of Kigalians. 

No matter the fact that Goethe-Institute recently changed its location in Kacyiru to the New Papyrus in Kimihurura, it didn’t deter movie lovers from turning up in large numbers. 

"It was my first time to come at the New Papyrus for the movie night and I really enjoyed my evening because The White Rose is such an interesting movie to watch,” Nelson Mandela told The New Times shortly after the movie screening.

Synopsis

During the Second World War, a small group of students at Munich University begins to question the decisions and sanity of Germany’s Nazi government.

The students from a resistance cell which they name The White Rose after a newsletter which is secretly distributed to fellow students. 

At first small in numbers and fearful of discovery, the White Rose begins to gain massive support after a Nazi Gauleiter nearly incited a student riot following a provocative speech. At this point the matter is taken over by the Gestapo, which pledges to hunt down and eliminate the members of the White Rose.