Shooting Dogs (2005)
Country: GB/GER/FR
Technical: col 115m
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Cast: John Hurt, Hugh Dancy, Dominique Horwitz
Synopsis:
Rwanda, 1994: The Ecole Technique Officielle is run by a catholic priest and overseas teacher, and used as a post by the Belgian contingent of the Kigali UN 'peace-monitoring' force. As Hutus set upon Tutsis in the streets outside, the school becomes a safe haven, one which the soldiers are eventually ordered to abandon.
Review:
In the face of such a harrowing story, soberly told, criticism is all but powerless, and like Hotel Rwanda the film is surefooted, balancing obvious condemnation of the UN's pusillanimity with a faithful rendering of the officer's moral flinching in the face of his duty. The desertion of the young teacher is harder to swallow, since no one ordered him to go, but which of us would have done any differently? The title alludes to the one offensive activity the UN soldiers are permitted to engage in without a new Security Council resolution.
Country: GB/GER/FR
Technical: col 115m
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Cast: John Hurt, Hugh Dancy, Dominique Horwitz
Synopsis:
Rwanda, 1994: The Ecole Technique Officielle is run by a catholic priest and overseas teacher, and used as a post by the Belgian contingent of the Kigali UN 'peace-monitoring' force. As Hutus set upon Tutsis in the streets outside, the school becomes a safe haven, one which the soldiers are eventually ordered to abandon.
Review:
In the face of such a harrowing story, soberly told, criticism is all but powerless, and like Hotel Rwanda the film is surefooted, balancing obvious condemnation of the UN's pusillanimity with a faithful rendering of the officer's moral flinching in the face of his duty. The desertion of the young teacher is harder to swallow, since no one ordered him to go, but which of us would have done any differently? The title alludes to the one offensive activity the UN soldiers are permitted to engage in without a new Security Council resolution.
Country: GB/GER/FR
Technical: col 115m
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Cast: John Hurt, Hugh Dancy, Dominique Horwitz
Synopsis:
Rwanda, 1994: The Ecole Technique Officielle is run by a catholic priest and overseas teacher, and used as a post by the Belgian contingent of the Kigali UN 'peace-monitoring' force. As Hutus set upon Tutsis in the streets outside, the school becomes a safe haven, one which the soldiers are eventually ordered to abandon.
Review:
In the face of such a harrowing story, soberly told, criticism is all but powerless, and like Hotel Rwanda the film is surefooted, balancing obvious condemnation of the UN's pusillanimity with a faithful rendering of the officer's moral flinching in the face of his duty. The desertion of the young teacher is harder to swallow, since no one ordered him to go, but which of us would have done any differently? The title alludes to the one offensive activity the UN soldiers are permitted to engage in without a new Security Council resolution.