PLOT: In 1994, a Catholic School protected by Belgian UN troops in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, becomes a refuge for Tutsis trying to escape the genocide. As it's surrounded, it becomes obvious it will fall, and whites with the privilege of fleeing agonize over abandoning their African friends. Based on a true story.
It might seem beside the point that white foreigners got stressed out as they fled the murderous insanity that overtook Rwanda in 1994. At least they got to keep their arms and legs.
But given that the news of 800,000 black Africans being slaughtered was met with a collective sad shrug in the West at the time, you can't blame producers and filmmakers today for giving us some white people to feel sorry for. It's just business.
That cynical reality doesn't negate the fact that Shooting Dogs -- based on the actual slaughter of 2,000 people at a Catholic high school in the capital of Kigali -- is a tense, harrowing movie about impending doom, as claustrophobic in its approach as a horror movie.
Indeed, as priests, teachers, students, a handful of Belgian UN soldiers and terrified refugees huddle in their temporary safety inside the grounds of Ecole Technique Officielle (shot on location where the actual events took place), the grinning, prowling mobs of Hutus outside resemble nothing so much as the zombies in a George Romero movie, shuffling around and mindlessly awaiting their moment.
(Given that many of the extras and crew were actual survivors of the genocide, flashbacks had to have been a production hazard).
Inside the compound, the Belgian soldiers' predicament resembles that facing the Canadians in Hotel Rwanda, a notch better film.
They can't fire unless fired upon, which means they can only stand and watch as people are hacked to pieces outside the gates; the violence largely takes place behind bushes or is otherwise implied.
Frustrated, they resort to shooting the dogs that devour the dead.
Their predicament is personified by Capitaine Delon (Dominique Horwitz), the increasingly haunted Belgian commander, who is itching for a chance to disregard his orders.
But the core of Shooting Dogs is Father Christopher (John Hurt), the school's spiritual patriarch, and his prize teacher Joe Connor (Hugh Dancy), a fun-loving young Brit whose flippancy and glibness beg to be shattered by events. Director Michael Caton-Jones (Basic Instinct 2) does a decent enough job layering the relationships between Father Christopher, Joe and their students.
One in particular, a track-and-field-mad girl named Marie (Claire-Hope Ashitey), has an outright crush on her teacher that burns through the fear.
All of this amps the heartbreak when the whites-only exodus begins. Not surprisingly, Hurt gives the movie its class with his soul-deep portrayal of the beatific padre. And Dancy's character is so unbelievably clueless, we don't expect nobility when crunchtime comes.
BOTTOM LINE: A harrowing tale, with John Hurt shining as a priest whose commitment to his parishioners and students is informed by Christian love and sadness. Falls short of Hotel Rwanda, but Shooting Dogs benefits from being shot on location, with extras and crew who all survived the Rwandan holocaust.
(This film is rated 14-A)
More Movie Reviews
