The man who killed your family is now living beside you. How do you restore a sense of a just and civil society when you survive a genocide?
Rwanda faces this struggle. In 1999, five years after more than half a million Tutsis were brutally murdered by Rwandan Hutus, the government introduced Gacaca – a process where open air hearings and citizen judges try members of the community for atrocities they committed.
This social experiment permitted confessed genocide killers to leave prison and return to their homes amongst surviving Tutsis. Survivors are asked to forgive them and resume living next door to those who may have raped or killed members of their own family.
Award-winning filmmaker Anne Aghion follows this process and the impact it has on a small hamlet over the period of a decade. The raw anger and emotional wounds that may never heal are visible and difficult to witness. It becomes clear that there is no simple solution to reconciliation. Both the victims and perpetrators understand that the path to coexistence will be long and difficult, and this gripping documentary follows this journey with compassion and conscience.
Program Notes by Alex Rogalski
