Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire (2004)

Director:

Peter Raymont

Writer:

Roméo Dallaire (book)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

The story of Canadian Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire, and his controversial command of the United Nations mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. |

Plot Keywords:

Genocide | United Nations Mission | Rwanda | United Nations | Africa

Awards:

6 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Roméo Dallaire

...

Himself (as Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire)

Also Known As:

J'ai serré la main du diable - Roméo Dallaire (Canada: French title)
Shake Hands with the Devil (Australia) (DVD title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:14 | Iceland:12 | Australia:M | New Zealand:R

Filming Locations:

Rwanda

Company:

White Pine Pictures

Trivia:

Robert Redford personally came to the film's opening at the Sundance Film Festival and introduced the film. At the end he said that this documentary is the type of film he created Sundance for in the first place. Source:

An emotional and eye-opening film

This film reaffirms why documentary film making is so important. Documentaries don't simply tell a story; they tell a real story, a human story. Documentaries help to shed light on human triumphs and human tragedies, both of which are evident in this gripping film directed by Peter Raymont.

The tragedy, of course, was that nearly 1 million Rwandans were killed and slaughtered in a senseless act of genocide. What adds to the tragedy is that the "civilized" world could have easily stopped this from happening, if they only cared. The film displays how the U.N. and individual countries alike not only failed to help the innocent Rwandan people, but in many ways they contributed to the genocide that happened by creating some of the ethnic stigmas that existed in the country.

Yet amongst all of this carnage and horror there did remain some good people who tried to help the Rwandan's. General Romeo Dallaire, commander of the UN forces in Rwanda, was one of these people. Perhaps no one else in Rwanda did as much to save people as did Mr. Dallaire. Even though he was betrayed by the UN and ignored by the rest of the world, he emerged from this terrible situation as a hero.

I believe the ultimate message of this film is that the leading countries of the world and their citizens must learn from human tragedies like Rwanda so that we can take action to prevent such atrocities from happening again. Unfourtunately, with situations such as the one in Darfur, it seems like this message is not being heard. An important film that must be seen by all and a shining example of documentary film making. 10/10.