eurofilm-4 Reviews

Sometimes in April (2005 TV Movie)

Powerful film, more realistic than Hotel Rwanda!

[8/10 · 24 February 2005]

I saw this at the Berlin film festival and I think it shoulda won (it got a standing ovation). This film really isn't as pleasant and slick as Hotel Rwanda with its heroic Schilder's List kinda character, but it makes you aware of the whole picture. i actually think they compliment each other well, since this is the more realistic version. I didn't know much about the Rwandan genocide that happened just recently in 1994, where they almost killed a million people, and felt ashamed for the way the Western world, mainly the US and Europeans, looked away, which is the point of the movie. The complicated flashback structure can be a bit confusing, but the film really makes a strong point and shows the creepy way how things get out of hand very quickly. It's heartbreaking and hard to watch sometimes, but it's a powerful and most of all very realistic movie (I read they shot it in Rwanda on location, while Hotel was shot in South Africa).