Hôtel Rwanda: Cinematic features of the film

Introduction: Narrative The year 1994 witnessed an alarming series of genocides in Rwanda, with the ethnic cleansing of the Tutsi minority. Trampled by the Hutus, the Tutsis suffered severely from several atrocities; violation of human rights convulsed the world but none within the international arena intervened to resolve this crisis.

 

Exploring Hotel Rwanda (2004)

 

The film, Hotel Rwanda, produced in 2004 by Terry George, seeks to present the story in the form of a true story of one man’s encounter with the conflict-ridden regime. The protagonist, Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager played by Don Cheadle, was a Hutu who wedded a Tutsi wife. In Hotel Rwanda, Paul displays tremendous magnanimity and courage as he housed a thousand Tutsi refugees and Hutu moderates from the radical Hutu militia in his hotel, Hotel Des Milles Collines. The movie progresses as Paul attempted to bribe and pacify the Hutu militia to prevent further harm inflicted on his people. The film ends with Paul bringing his people successfully to safety behind the Tutsi rebel lines.

Analysis of Hotel Rwanda will center on cinematic features of the film, particularly the use of semiotics and how these signs are used as linguistic and non-linguistic cues for discourse. Concurrently, we will delve into the schematic understanding of Hotel Rwanda, establishing linkages between the audience’s cognition and their interpretations.

Semiotics at work

According to Charles Sanders Pierce, semiotic signs can be diversified into three categories: icons, indices (also an ‘index’ or a ‘seme’) or symbols. These categories place difference positions on the spectrum of relationships between its signifier and signified.

• Symbols

Symbols are signs based on arbitrary or purely conventional association. One symbol is the Hutu fashion depicted in the film: a patchwork of red, green and yellow stripes. Hutus are dressed in these designs in the film for the audience to be able to set them apart from the rest of the Rwandans, mainly the Tutsis. Watch as George, a Hutu merchant, hands Paul a ‘Hutu’ shirt as he says, “It’s time for you to join your people.”

 Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZprAN0o9oAI&feature=related

3.37 – 3.46 min

Behind this patchwork rests a cultural meaning for the Hutus, as they regard Rwanda as ‘Hutu land’, on the grounds that they form the majority of the population. The narrative in the first part of the film, accompanied by a blank screen, shows a voiceover by a Hutu radio announcer.

 Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZprAN0o9oAI&feature=related

1.08 – 1.26 min

What warrants Hutu fashion ‘symbolic’ is the similarity with the old Rwandan flag. Claiming ownership of Rwanda as Hutu land, Hutus dress themselves in patchwork prints to assert that they are the de facto inhabitants of Rwanda.

Paul flashing Hutu shirt to Hutu peoples

Hutu fashion: Hutu militia clad in Hutu shirts

Rwanda flag (1962-2001)

Radios too, are symbolic to the Hutus: a pivotal medium for mobilization. It was posited that the Hutus galvanized anti-Tutsi sentiments through the use of ‘hate speech’ aired over the radios. The role of radio was the sole source of news as well as the sole authority for interpreting Hutu anti-Tutsi sentiments during the genocide.

Another symbol was the lexicon of the ‘Tutsis’ to the word, ‘cockroaches’. This was done frequently by the Hutus as they referred to the Tutsis in their speech. The Tutsis were thought of as pests; they jeopardized Hutu sovereignty in Rwanda given their special statuses by the colonialists: which spilled over to their high social status and their dominance of lucrative jobs.

Hate speech used by a radio announcer in Hotel Rwanda: 

• Icon

The prototype of the Hutu and Tutsi peoples, were embodied by Paul and Tatianna accordingly, who both cinematic icons of Hotel Rwanda. Hutu people were generally stereotyped racially as dark-skinned, short and thick-set with a big head, had wide noses and enormous lips, while the Tutsis were fair,  very tall, thin, and had fine features: a high brow, thin nose and fine lips.

Physical representations of the Tutsis, Hutus and Twas

Paul and Tatianna, played by Don Cheadle and Sophie Okenedo, were cast in the film as the Hutu man and the Tutsi woman respectively. Iconization here occurs as physical features become distinct icons of the two ethnic groups.

Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo) was taller and fairer than Paul (Don Cheadle)

Paul: Dark-skinned, had a wide nose and enormous lips; Tatiana: Fair, tall, thin and had sharp features

Additionally, the common visitors of the luxurious Hotel Des Milles Collines were represented by several ‘White’ people in the film, as the director attempted to iconize the rich tourists and diplomats by casting White actors, concurrently indexing the Whites to be affluent. The ‘White’ people engaged in rich activities in their free time: enjoying cigars, wine, and lazing by the poolside.

Westerners at the Hotel Des Milles Collines

   

Most of the hotels customers consisted of the affluent Westerners

• Index

Indexes in films valorise the film’s realism. To ensure that a film is realistic, cinematography is often done by extracting a levelled understanding of society and playing on this understanding to fit the narrative.

As mentioned in the earlier paragraph, ‘White’ people were stereotyped to form the well-to-dos in Hotel Rwanda, as shown by the hotel’s distinguished guests. In a conversation between U.N. Colonel Oliver and Paul, the disparate statuses of the West and the Rwandans(Africans) is highlighted as Colonel Oliver told Paul that Rwandans were seen as ‘dirt’ and ‘not even niggas’. Additionally, the lack of intervention highlighted the insignificance of the Rwandans. The Rwandans were indexed to be worthless to the rest of the international community, specifically the West. A later clip reveals that only the Westerners were escorted out of the country to safety by the Western troops, leaving the Rwandans abandoned and desolate.

Watch the conversation between Paul and Colonel Oliver:

Click (Part 1/2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRS-ZJJLLGI&feature=related

9.25 – 9.45 min

 Click (Part 2/2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl3vYYnIGzY&feature=related

cont’d 0.00 – 0.31 min

When it came to fleeing the country for safety, only the Westerners were eligible to be worth rescuing:

Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl3vYYnIGzY&feature=related

2.27 min

To the Hutus, the label, ‘Tutsi’, was not only to identify a member who did not belong to their community. It also indexed several negative characteristics and evoked Hutu hatred: Tutsis were parasites, they were unwelcomed to the land. Historically, Tutsi kings ruled Rwanda, sharing an unequal relationship with the peoples. Contrarily, the term ‘Hutu’ was valorised with several positive connotations; being ‘Hutu’ was being honourable, they were the rightful owners of Rwanda.

Schematic Understanding

Pierce correlated logic with semiotics, postulating that signs acquire their meanings according to what had been earlier stored as cognition of the mind. Similarly, knowledge of the 1994 genocide prior to watching the film aired in 2004, has caused viewers to expect the presenting of atrocities in the 2004 film. The voiceover that narrates the story in the beginning of the film also serves to rehash and reinforce the schematic understanding of the 1994 genocide. However, schematic understanding that has led to viewers’ expectation could be undermined as the film is presented in a different light. Hotel Rwanda is an adaptation of one man’s story, it could be projected differently from what happened during the genocide in 1994. Similarly, the atrocities produced by the cinematographic crew in Hotel Rwanda was reduced in severity as it had to cater to the PG-13 audience.

Conclusion

Auteurship for Hotel Rwanda cannot be credited to Terry George alone. It was a creation of many specializations: later pieced together holistically to complement one another to accentuate the realness of the movie. It is to my dismay that further research could not be done given the restraints of the project. Nonetheless, it must be understood that film is not parsimoniously for entertainment. It could contain a political message- to shame the international community for going soft on the violation of human rights.

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References:

Burch, Robert. Charles Sanders Peirce. 2010. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/#prag (accessed Oct 2010).

Hopkins, Paul. “The true story behind ‘Hotel Rwanda’.” Independent. ie, May 27, 2006.

Seifert, Christopher. “The Culture of Rwanda; Hutu & Tutsi.” Research Paper.