Shake Hands with the Devil -- the movie
Another movie about the 1994 Rwanda massacre is in the works, according to a press release I received today. This one will star Quebecois star Roy Dupuis (The Barbarian Invasions, La Femme Nikita, etc.) as Canadian general Roméo Dallaire, and it will be based on Dallaire's memoir Shake Hands with the Devil, which was already turned into a documentary in 2004. The director will be Ottawa-born Roger Spottiswoode, whose credits include the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and the Arnold Schwarzenegger cloning flick The 6th Day (2000; my review).
This movie is the latest in a recent spate of Rwanda-themed films that includes 2004's Hotel Rwanda (in which Nick Nolte plays a fictitious Canadian officer named Col. Oliver), 2005's Sometimes in April and Shooting Dogs, and the upcoming Un dimanche à Kigali (in which Guy Thauvette plays Dallaire himself).
Filming starts in Kigali, Rwanda in mid-June. If I'm not mistaken, that would make this only the second film, after Shooting Dogs, to be shot on location, where the incidents depicted occurred.
UPDATE: Whoops, I forgot that Un dimanche à Kigali was, itself, shot in Kigali, as befits the movie's title. So that would make Shake Hands with the Devil at least the third film to shoot there.
posted by Peter T Chattaway at 1:33 PM
6 Comments:
FWIW, here's the full text of the press release:
ROY DUPUIS TO PLAY LIEUTENANT GENERAL ROMEO DALLAIRE IN FEATURE FILM "SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL"
Principal photography begins in Kigali, Rwanda mid-June on the feature film Shake Hands with the Devil. Roy Dupuis (The Rocket, Mémoires affectives, The Barbarian Invasions, Nikita) stars as Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire in the film directed by Roger Spottiswoode (Ripley Under Ground, Tomorrow Never Dies) and based on Dallaire's best selling memoir of the same name.
Shake Hands with the Devil is the story of a Canadian soldier torn between his duty and his conscience. In 1994, The UN dispatched Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire to Rwanda to enforce a difficult peace. The day he orders the UN flag raised, six little girls are massacred in what appears to be the work of the rebels. Chaos ensues. Lieutenant General Dallaire whips his small ill-provisioned force of peacekeepers into the best shape he can. Powerless to prevent the country descending into hell, he is ordered home. He disobeys. He insists on staying and saving as many people as possible. When the Belgian troops pull out, he can only watch as his best-equipped troops leave. Promising journalists a story every day if they stay, Lieutenant General Dallaire attempts to shame the international community into action. In the end, 800 000 were killed but he saves some 30 000 people.
Romeo Dallaire is recognized as an advocate of peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding in the world's most war-torn regions. His recently published account of the 1994 Rwandan genocide Shake Hands with the Devil -- the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, has earned international recognition as well as the 2004 Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the "Shaughnessy Cohen Prize" for political writing awarded by the Writers' Trust of Canada.
Roy Dupuis is on a roll. His performance as Maurice Richard in the recently released feature The Rocket was universally applauded by the media. Although born in New Liskeard, Ontario Roy Dupuis is probably the only worldwide known actor based in Quebec that still lives in the beautiful province. Thanks to the success of Nikita TV series, Dupuis has built recognition around the globe. His work has been awarded many times, but most recently, he has received the Genie and Jutra Award for Best Actor in Mémoires Affectives.
Shake Hands with the Devil is produced by Laszlo Barna (Barna-Alper Productions Inc) and Michael Donovan (Halifax Film Company) and distributed in Canada by Seville Pictures.
Shake Hands with the Devil is produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, The Movie Network, Movie Central, Radio-Canada and Super Écran with the participation of Telefilm Canada and the Harold Greenberg Fund.
very interesting...thank youf for sharing this information.
--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
Is There anything we haven't heard on this topic/story yet? Oh yes, the rwandan point of view. But then I guess it is not as bankable as thoughts and reflections of powerless foregners trapped in the country during those troubled times. I will check this one out too though.
Wasn't Hotel Rwanda told from the point of view of Rwandans?
This should be a well made movie. His story was told in print now it will be told on the big screen. Maybe now the world will not let anything like this happen again.
It is happening again, open your eyes. The Darfur region in Sudan. These people are murdered for being anything but Arab. The Janjaweed, or "Devil on horseback" terrorize, murder, rape and torture these people everyday for the past 3 1/2 years. 400,000 people dead, 2.5 million displaced, thousands of women raped. This, this is the genocide that is now being ignored. It is a stretched out Rwanada but all the same devistating.
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