Cady's Take:

Hotel Rwanda is a compelling true story that emerged when Paul Rusesabagina (Cheadle), the Hutu manager of the posh Hotel Des Milles Collines in Rwandan capital Kigali, sheltered more than 1,200 Tutsi friends, relatives and strangers from the start of the genocide in April to his evacuation in July. The Hutu extremists had taken over the country, and their goal was to exterminate all of the Tutsi people.

The Rwandan genocide was perhaps the most unforgivable foreign-relations lapse of the Clinton administration. Nearly 1 million people were killed in 100 days, the most rapid genocide in history. Many of the victims were hacked to death with machetes. Because this was Africa no one outside the continent gave a damn simply because there were no monetary interests.

The horrors taking place outside the hotel were brutal, it was massive civilian massacre, and I just don't believe that this film presented how harrowing the experience actually was. Another film that was released for HBO this year called "Sometimes In April"; shows the full gruesomeness of the situation that took place in 1994 without being subtle.

Nevertheless, Hotel Rwanda is an important film. This is not an easy film to watch, but the powerful story and dynamic acting is an inspirational account of compassion and courage. You should definitely put either "Hotel Rwanda" or "Sometimes In April" on your list of movies to watch!

In Rwanda , in 1994, conflict between the two local "ethnic" groups - the Tutsi and the Hutu - escalated into one hundred days of mass murder. Conservative estimates cite 800,000 Rwandans killed, and tens of thousands of others displaced from their homes. 800,000 people were killed in 100 days with machetes and guns - this rate is ten times the rate of the Holocaust at its most efficient . People in Rwanda were being killed at ten times the rate of the Nazi Holocaust (a genocide with the "benefit" of gas chambers and crematoria) with machetes and guns.

"Hotel Rwanda" is the story of one man, Paul Rusesabagina (Ru-SES-uh-buh-gi-nuh), a Hutu, and hotel manager who saved the lives of about two thousand Rwandans by allowing them to stay within the confines of his hotel, and by bartering with the local interhamwe rebel soldiers, buying people and their safety with money, beer, and whatever else he could hand over fast enough.

Don Cheadle plays Rusesebegina, a man whose name should be familiar to those who have read about the conflict. Co-starring Nick Nolte as a United Nations military official, "Hotel Rwanda" is the story of one man's struggle for survival, and the survival of his family, in the middle of an insane civil war while the Western looks on with indifference. Not only should you watch "Hotel Rwanda" this weekend, but you should also check your local bookstores for books that outline the history and development of the conflict which ravaged a tiny African nation.