Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4472 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-04-03
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1

Synopsis
A dramatisation of the brutal events that befell the citizens of Rwanda in April 1994. Director Raoul Peck shot the bulk of the picture in Rwanda, adding an incredible feeling of poignancy to his film by revisiting many of the sites where the unthinkable acts of genocide occurred. Peck focuses his cameras on two Hutu brothers, a military man and a DJ. The Hutu's were responsible for the estimated 800,000 deaths of their Tutsi countrymen during this period; the violence was sparked when Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana also a Hutu, was killed after his plane was shot down on April 6th. As the gruesome events unfold, the two brothers lives are immeasurably changed in ways they never thought possible. Hard hitting and not afraid to depict many of the graphic scenes of violence that exploded across Rwanda during this dark chapter in Africa's history, SOMETIMES IN APRIL is a courageous, brave piece of filmmaking that stands alongside Terry George's HOTEL RWANDA as an important document of a tragic time.

Customer Reviews

Sometimes in April - The Real Deal
Sometimes in April is the real deal. It is ferocious in it's criticism of both Belgian colonialism and UN involvement in the genocide, in a way no other film has had the balls to do. It starts at the beginning of the route of the genocide, unafraid to lay blame where blame belongs - at the feet of the West who cowardly turned their backs on the 1994 consequences of their historical mess-ups. The main character is a Rwandan - none of this White Boy Saves Africa syndrome - and he honestly and convincingly portrays a human story as opposed to a sensational 'what kind of people would do that' narration that comes across in other films about the genocide. Peck is also deliberate in the scenes he choses to shoot - the lack of violence leaves the audience to consider the facts, as opposed to shaking off the sensational-shock factor outside the cinema. Buy it. Watch it. You show your abhorent politics if you don't.

Stunning !
Rarely can the adjective 'stunning' be used sincerely to describe a film but this one deserves it. Heart-rending, appalling, touching, and horrifying, it is - as other reviewers have suggested - absolutely must-watch material. It is hard to think of another film that portrays the horror of being caught up in a war, and in particular in the special horrors of a civil war, as this one does. I have not been able to get it out of my mind since viewing it several weeks ago. I hardly dare to go back and watch it again but simultaneously feel compelled to. Please watch it. It's a brilliant piece of film-making.

An extraordinairy film
This is film making at its best, the kind of film that should win all kinds of awards but doesnt. Not because its a 'worthy' film but because it tells a vitally important story that needs to be seen by a vast audience in a clear, powerful, passionate,accurate and deeply moving way.

Every aspect of it is brilliantly done - the direction, the acting, the costumes, the cinemotography and the editing. It educates without preaching. It just tells the story, because the story itself is powerful enough. Like all the genocides of history it shows what we are capable of - a million people murdered in a few weeks while the international community wrung its hands and wallowed in inaction. Ignorance propoganda and hate are a dangerous combination in any culture.