Paul Ndahiro a.k.a Eddie Nkuyubwasi and Marie France Uwase a.k.a Dorosera Mukakamana are co-stars in the new genocide movie, ‘Tears of Rwanda.’
Paul Ndahiro a.k.a Eddie Nkuyubwasi and Marie France Uwase a.k.a Dorosera Mukakamana are co-stars in the new genocide movie, ‘Tears of Rwanda.’
This locally produced movie that was launched on Sunday at the Kigali Serena hotel is a compilation of individual accounts of incident that took place during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
It depicts Ndahiro right from childhood, born in exile in Uganda but was always curious to know why he suffered discrimination at school from fellow students.
As a little boy he goes through all the setbacks and difficulties that come with living away from home until a golden chance came in 1990 for him to go visit his uncle in Rwanda, a country whose political stability at the time was unpredictable.
Exile could have been hell for Ndahiro but home to him proved not any better as he regularly witnessed brutal killings based on ethnicity even directed towards his own family.
The situation of shifting from the frying pan to the blazing flames could only be avoided by choosing to go back ‘home’ and that’s exactly what he did.
In 1992 he flew back to Uganda and told his story but he had become so attached to his own people that he still felt he had something to save.
He had also met love in Dorosera and for him there could have never been any better reason to join the army in the hope that one day he would be part of the liberation plan that was under way.
Successful preparations saw the revolutionary struggle through only to find that most of the family members had been killed.
The families of Dorosera and Ndahiro had suffered severe loss during the Genocide in which over one million others were killed.
Dorosera had been raped several times before being rescued by Ndahiro and his comrades and now life goes on.
‘Tears of Rwanda’ portrays exactly what happened with real footage recordings of incidences taken as the RPF advanced from the Rwandan boarder in Kagitumba.
It was premiered on Sunday after a two year spell of hard work by the producer Capt (Rtd.) Peter Sheriff Kigame and Director Nzaramba John.
Kigame who was himself part of the RPF team in 1994 explains that for several reasons they have excluded some breath taking images which were secretly recorded.
"If we show so much of how the brutal killings took place it might divert the attention from the objective and sometimes this has a negative impact on some people’s health,” said Kigame.
He pointed out that the real picture of the Genocide has been maintained and to clear the confusion between what is said to have happened or not, this is a must watch.
After the first show the movie is set to be publicly viewed at the Amahoro National Stadium, National University of Rwanda and various places upcountry before copies can storm the market. This is expected to take about one month.
Nzaramba also says, they have used local actors as a way of empowering them and equipping them with skills to enable them compete at the world market.
"Our youth who are survivors themselves can act better since they have gone through it and they need to be empowered economically after the brutality that characterised their lives,” he said.