Synopsis

During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the Mufti of Rwanda, the most respected Muslim leader in the country, issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims from participating in the killing of the Tutsi. As the country became a slaughterhouse, mosques became places of refuge where Muslims and Christians, Hutus and Tutsis came together to protect each other. Kinyarwanda is based on true accounts from survivors who took refuge at the Grand Mosque of Kigali and the Imams who opened their doors to give refuge to the Tutsi and to those Hutu who refused to participate in the killing.

The story interweaves six different tales that together form one grand narrative, providing the most complex and real depiction yet presented of life and human resilience during the genocide. With an amalgamation of characters we pay homage to many, using the voices of a few. We follow the young lovers, the child, the couple, the soldiers, the Imam, and the priest as they are swept up by the chaos of the world around them.

Director’s Statement

Kinyarwanda is a feature length film spawned from the very real stories of Rwandans who survived the 1994 Genocide, many of whom lost family and friends. These stories and the research of Executive Producer Ishmael Ntihabose resulted in this very unique way of telling a part of Rwandan history yet unknown to most of the world. Ishmael’s research focused on the how many Hutu and Tutsi Muslims in Rwanda worked with Christian Hutus and Tutsis to protect and save lives. While many previous films focused on the politics and death during the genocide, Kinyarwanda is a movie about life, faith, forgiveness, and reconciliation. However we use the genocide as a backdrop and a context to tell our character’s very personal stories. As one Rwandan said, “Even during the genocide, life still went on.” My hope is that audiences will come to know Rwandans as ordinary people, individuals, lovers, friends and not merely heroes, villains, victims or perpetrators.

In order to create a film that would be both educational and entertaining the film uses storytelling structure much like popular artistic films like Pulp Fiction, Amores Perros and Crash. There are a series of short stories that intertwine to create one energetic, engaging, and entertaining 90-minute narrative.

This is a film as much about process as it is about the final product. As a team we have set out to work with as many Rwandans in front of and behind the camera as possible. In this vain, most of the Rwandan crew on the film, who had worked on previous films as assistants to assistants headed up their own departments on this film. In front of the camera, Rwandan actors from previous films are accompanied be a cast of mostly first time actors. This film is collaboration like no other I have ever experienced. It changed my life and the lives of our cast and crew and it will change the life of our audience.