Revisiting the Genocide against the Tutsi through film

The fifteenth commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi has received massive media coverage and the unveiling of different films on the catastrophic period. The films tell the story of the victims, survivors and perpetrators alike. The only way for the ‘Never Again’ vow to be a reality, is to keep the memory of the horrific Genocide alive, for this generation and future ones, to understand how a million lives were lost and never to repeat. Keepers of memory, Iseta: The Story Behind the Roadblock and Shooting Dogs are just a few of the movies that have been screened during the commemoration week. With stark details on the impact of the Genocide on whole livelihoods. 15 years down the road, the memory of the Genocide remains sketchy for the new generation and the pain barely allowing us to fully share with our children the gruesome events that characterised that dark chapter. In the films we watch heroes and villains of the dark chapter, who are now struggling to live side by side, faced with the choices of repentance for one and forgiveness for the other. At the same time the people of Rwanda are still in search of the complete truth about the Genocide, a truth that was exclusively captured through the lens of a British cameraman Nick Hughes, the same footage that helped in the production of the Iseta film. It is widely said that a picture can tell a thousand words, a picture can recreate a moment and communicate words that no one person can ever convey in words. This is what we get in Iseta, the capturing of the brutal murders on one of the notorious road-blocks. But! We watch through the eyes of those whose relatives and friends are being butchered. More like a horror movie, but told in the most humane, calm, healing manner that you are left not with anger, but in solidarity with those who had the courage to sit and watch their loved ones tormented to death. Those with the courage to put a smile on their faces while describing to us the memories they hold close of their beloved.An audience that is expected to weep and wail at the horrific scene is instead left with the bigger challenge, of forgiveness and reconciliation as part of the healing process. Iseta brings faces to what now lies in our memorial sites and helps us to fully deal with the loss at the same time committing to reconciliation. Iseta simply keeps their memory alive, for future generations. Ends

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Revisiting the Genocide against the Tutsi through film