Petit pays

Gael Faye's book was awarded the Goncourt high school students prize .

It depicts a lost paradise ,or the childhood's harrowing end during three years (roughly 1992-1994) ; the first part is the (relatively) happy times of the young hero: there're already cracks in the mirror; Gaby is the son of a white French building contractor and his black wife , whose family is still living in Rwanda : for Xmas ,she left her children to call on them ,and their children suffer accordingly .

Gaby leads a wild life with his friends , but he's a serious pupil at school where the teacher talks about democracy .

In 1993 , the elections saw a Hutu president rise to power ,and the Tutsis ( dominating ethnicity ) are not prepared to accept it ; on October,the 21th ,the coup d' etat (in the army, the Tutsis were in the majority )sparks off the civil war between the ethnicities and the massacres.

The fateful day is treated in admirably succint style: gunshots, then the desert street of the village ,and the father (a restrained Jean-Paul Rouve) desperately turning the buttons of his radio ,getting no news.

The horrible massacres are seen through a child's eye ,and apart from the horrifying lynching (the man beaten up ,then burned in a car), they are suggested :when the car ,passes through dead bodies , the children are told :"close your eyes" ; the viewer may be lost in the politics ,and he feels all the more in a child's shoes ; the awful fate of his parents is treated with decency .The genocide in Rwanda is represented by the black and white photography of Pacifique's wedding ("he was killed by his brothers in arms").

Had high hopes for this. Hotel Rwanda is one of my top movies and I expected similar here except for a hotel, the setting would be a family. I was expecting ESCAPE FROM MOGADISHU set during the Rwanda massacres.

Alas, that's not that this movie is about. This movie literally throws in everything and the kitchen sink trying to bring up all sorts of topics and completely loses itself over and over. The cast is not good and half of it serves no purpose. It appears to be there for some emotional appeal but such is not developed. The characters are bland, flat out rude, distant, acting as if they just met on a set and decided they need to read their lines and go do something else....

The movie also suffers from historical accuracy of set decor; it is way too westernized, contradictory to how life was in africa in the 80s and early 90s. I can forgive some things but when the cast trots around dressed as if they are strolling in paris, I take an objection to that!

Short way to put it, it lacks grit. And you cannot have african civil war without grit; if you cannot convey the basic elements that you are in 90s Rwanda/burundi/etc amidst a looming and impending crisis, what are you doing trying to direct anything? You have already failed and you should have your project cancelled.

I just did not care. No memorable scenes, no character development - i mean who are 90% of the people on screen type issues. Bland and boring cast. There is no other way to put it... Just not done well. Then it becomes downright offensive as it inserts edited footage of the cast to pass it off as original 90s vhs footage of real life. Just stop. The ending had me rolling my eyes too, and yes that too, was emotionless and pointless.

The only people who will like this are those who will not watch it but will imagine what they want it to be. If you watch it and have any background knowledge of what took place there and how life was, this movie will simply offend with its lifeless interpretations of every scene.

Interesting point of view this movie speaking of the Rwandan genocide, nearly thirty thirty years ago, the most terrific genocide of the end of the twentieth century, in modern times for a supposed civilized country. Not the political point of view here, but only human, very close to real characters depiction. Not bloody scenes, only suggested for the viewer. It may help many of us to understand many things, but it is also a bit too didactic, as if the audiences were not smart enough to understand. That's the problem with French films, such as Rachid Bouchareb ones. Worth seeing though.

The movie lacks depth compared to the amazing book it's been adapted from. The cast is not very good, one can hardly understand what some actors say. I found that Ana and her father are the most moving characters.

Many scenes are just super short and lacking the emotions and intentions of the book. There is still some poetry in the photography, but also a lot of clichés, like the mango battle at the beginning of the movie.

The horrible genocide history was gracefully eluded to in the book, and at least the movie kept this perspective. It is also interesting to see what Burundi looked like.

It's still worth taking 2 hours to watch a soft tale of the Tutsi genocide from a child's point of view. It's probably better to read the book first.