“The opposite of faith is not heresy, but indifference”, a
quote from Elie Weisel.
That quote appears in the closing credits of “Shooting Dogs”,
retitled “Beyond the Gates” in the US, a 2005 film by Michael Caton-Jones,
about the genocide in Rwanda of the Tutsi by the Hutu.
The Tutsi had been sheltered in a Catholic church-run school
(“L’ecole technique officielle), run by priest Christopher (John Hurt) and a
young English teacher Joe Connor (Hugh Dancy).
The history behind the film is an April 1994 incident where the UN
abandoned protecting the school and it was overrun by the Hutu. There is a
scene where a UN commander is challenged to do something, and he hides behind
formal international legalities.
When the school is to be overrun, both Christopher and Joe
have to make decisions about how far their personal courage goes, or at least
how they show it. Despite doing
everything possible to help the mothers and babies, Joe, at the last moment,
decides to leave. Christopher will stay
and give his own life in helping the last few women escape on foot.
In the epilogue of the film, Joe is shown conducting a
church choir (performing some a cappella Vaughn Williams) in Britain five years
later (still looking unscathed and about 25).
One of the young women who escaped confronts him. She talks about how
Christopher had looks at making sacrifice as part of accepting the love of God.
Then she asks, “Why did you leave us?” Joe hesitates and says, “I was afraid to
die.” She says they were both fortunate and must use their time in the rest of
their lives wisely.
I did go through the Vietnam era draft, and escaped (because
of my level of education) deployment overseas.
Because I had already experienced being physically “inadequate” as a
boy, the idea of “sacrifice” was abhorrent to me. If I had gone and been maimed, I did not want
to come back. To me, sacrifice was just
that, and Grace did not mean anyone should try to make it all right – even for
the hereafter. Some people may see this
as cowardice, or as a copout. I just don’t
like the idea of trying to make people love you after something like this has
happened.
The film has a Blogger entry here.
The BBC film was distributed by IFC. 20th Century Fox processed the DVD, and cropped the 2.35:1 aspect ratio
back to 1.85:1. There is an extensive “Making
Of” featurette. It explains how the "West" (colonialism and mercantilism) set up the circumstances that let this genocide happen.
The film can be compared to the better known “Hotel Rwanda” (2004,
United Artists) by Terry George, with Don Cheadle. That film gave some sense of the history, how
the tribes had been set up by the Belgians.
When I was a substitute teacher, a ninth grade English teacher taught
the film with video worksheets, showing how foreshadowing works (“Cut the tall
trees”)
Wikipedia attribution link for map of Rwanda.
No comments:
Post a Comment