Sometimes in April

I saw this last evening at a screening here in LA. I was extremely moved by the content and the way everything was shown. Having it filmed in Rwanda made a big difference. In 1994, I was 14 years old and I honestly did not hear anything about the genocide until 1999 when I was in college and studied it in my Ethnic and Minority Issues class. I was amazed to learn even more from this film. The acting was remarkable. Before the screening a historian talked about the genocide and then the director addressed the audience. His passion for this project was clear, and I think that having it on HBO gave him a lot of artistic freedom I highly recommend seeing this film just for educational value...you will come away impressed and contemplative.

If you really want to find out a bit more about the genocide in Rwanda of 1994, this is THE movie to go! It's a wonderful, yet uncompromisingly sad and bitter movie. Whereas "Hotel Rwanda" was more like Schindlers List in Africa, more focusing on a Hollywood-like hero & love story, "Sometimes in April" leads you right into the very depths of hell. The characters are well pointed out, the acting is always impressive and the film-making is very subtle and pleasantly calm. the only thing really which I could complain about to a certain degree was the sometimes a bit too prominently set musical soundtrack. Still - this movie is unforgettable; for one simply because of its honest attempt to tell the story of what happened in Rwanda, when the world literally turned its head - and on the other hand I feel the deepest respect for the team involved in making this for their seriousness and adequacy. A very daring and important movie!

What I'm about to say is as controversial as this film. Just like many times in the past the events of Rawanda shows the true nature of man-kinds ability to demean a group or sub-group to such a level that to take the life of a woman or child bares no moral consequence. What about the lives of hundreds of thousands women and children? By broadcasting racial propaganda against the Tutsis the Hutus were able to use the assassination of their President as a springboard for hate and genocide towards the Tutsis Rwanda citizens. Hate of another racial, religious or political group or sub-group is the most used method of control throughout human history. By classifying the term "Cock-Roaches" towards the Tutsis the Hutus were able to see them as less than human making murder more acceptable and without moral consequence.

This movie touched me deeply because it showed the true unforgiving brutality of man with very few moments of sincere sympathy towards the cause of the oppressed. Which is the reality of it all. The Beurocracy of the United Nations headed by the US is as much to blame for the Rwanda tragedy as the murdering Hutus which the film every so slightly portrays in its ending. It also shows its glaring hypocrisy in the face of the UN's most recent intrusions. But this film isn't about political finger pointing its about giving First World Society a vision of the Truth. The Atrocities of Rwanda I would hope more than anything put into perspective the world around us and how everything isn't just the peaches and cream that fills most of our daily lives. No matter what hardships we have been through NONE of them compare to what happened to the Tutsie in 94 or the Jews and Chinese in WWII.

The movie ends with a heart-felt message to "Never Forget". But we will. It is the only thing we can do. To accept the tragedy for what it is as something that truly goes on in this world and will inevitably happen again if Political Propaganda so determines it to be beneficial would mean the end of society's self delusional security. If we were a moral race of beings we would of already taken steps to make sure Rwanda would never happen again in ours nor our children's children's lifetimes. But we haven't. And we won't.

This was one of the most moving films I have ever seen. Didn't have the flash of Hotel Rwanda or Schindler's List, but possibly surpassed them in substance. This is not a film for the squeamish, but a film about genocide shouldn't be if it is to deliver its message with maximum effect. Even 11 years on, we in the West get only glimpses into the happenings of the Rwanda Genocide and even fewer in the Western World even attempt to understand the reasons. In just 100 days, over 1 million Tutsis and Moderate Hutus were killed while the world looked the other way. I think this film demonstrated this very well, while at the same time it showed that there were some (Debra Winger's character) in the West who tried everything to help but could do nothing. It doesn't blame the West for the genocide like an uber-liberal, Michael Mooresque America-bashing festival would, but doesn't forgive the West for letting it happen either (which is more than reasonable). "It was Rwandans killing Rwandans", was the line used by the US Army general in the film to give an excuse as to why nothing was done by the outside world. But I think the most important message in this film was that in the living hell that was Rwanda during the genocide, there were still incredible acts of courage and humanity (the Hutu farm wife who sheltered the Matron and the school girls). An aspect of the film that struck hardest with me was how quickly the spiral of madness and slaughter struck so quickly and so terribly. The interplay between the main characters also showed that many of the people who complied in this most evil of crimes were not monsters out of a horror novel, but regular people who through self-interest or ethnic bigotry became the tools of this remarkable insanity. To sum this up, I gave this movie a 10 out of 10. The reason why I did is because this is a movie that should be seen by all. To paraphrase the motto of the survivors of Hitler's Holocaust, "Never again", Sometimes in April reminds us all that we should keep to that promise.

I saw this at the Berlin film festival and I think it shoulda won (it got a standing ovation). This film really isn't as pleasant and slick as Hotel Rwanda with its heroic Schilder's List kinda character, but it makes you aware of the whole picture. i actually think they compliment each other well, since this is the more realistic version. I didn't know much about the Rwandan genocide that happened just recently in 1994, where they almost killed a million people, and felt ashamed for the way the Western world, mainly the US and Europeans, looked away, which is the point of the movie. The complicated flashback structure can be a bit confusing, but the film really makes a strong point and shows the creepy way how things get out of hand very quickly. It's heartbreaking and hard to watch sometimes, but it's a powerful and most of all very realistic movie (I read they shot it in Rwanda on location, while Hotel was shot in South Africa).