Kinyarwanda

6/10 Dropps.

Genre: Drama, Romance
Rated: Unrated
Running Time: 1 hr. 40 min.
Directed By: Alrick Brown

Kinyarwanda tells the story of truly horrific Rwandan genocide that took place in 1994. The film follows a cast of characters through different point of views, and stories during, and after, the genocide that affected a majority of the nations people, and left nearly 800,000 people dead in it’s wake. Kinyarwanda is a people’s tale that pinned neighbor against neighbor, and friends against friends in situations of life and death.

If the story of the Rwandan genocide sounds like a familiar tale, it could be because of the wildly popular, heart-touching Hotel Rwanda that was released a few years ago and covered roughly the same topic. Unlike Hotel Rwanda, though the infamous hotel is mentioned in the film, Kinyarwanda spans the stories of many characters, rather than just focusing on one main protagonist, most of which come into and out of each other’s lives through out the span of the film.

Kinyarwanda finds Alrick Brown making his directing and writing feature length debut, and a fairly effective one at that. With only a few shorts under his belt, Brown takes an ambitious leap with Kinyarwanda, creating a film that, at times, touches and horrifies the viewer with powerful emotional flares and truly troubling storylines, but at others leaves them wanting something more, even if that something is unpronounced to the viewer.

With mostly unknowns filling the roles of this multiple protagonist endeavor, each character, and there is quite a few to keep track of, portrays his or her on screen persona with confidence coming off the screen like established veterans, and giving Kinyarwanda a truly authentic feeling.

Kinyarwanda, along with being a pick at this year’s Florida Film Festival, was an official selection at Sundance earlier this year. The film creates an instant aura about it self once it begins, the viewer, if familiar with the story about to unfold, is enticed and interested to see what comes off the screen, unfortunately what is delivered is a bit lack luster at times and a bit over directed. While the characters in portray shine, something is still missing from Brown’s offering with Kinyarwanda.

-Hunter Freiburg