A Rwandan mother and daughter are challenged when Never occurs Again
Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi in Ben'Imana, a Rwandan film that opens FilmAfrica on 23 October
Daniel Nelson
Many leaders around the world promised “Never Again” after the Holocaust, but the promise has been broken several times, and in the case of the Rwandan genocide the world not only failed to stop the massacres but actively averted their eyes.
So what happened in Rwanda before, during and after a terrible 100 days of bloodletting in 1994 is of particular importance.
It was Rwandan soldiers who stopped the genocide and it has been Rwandans who tried to deal with the aftermath and rebuild the country.
One of the most fascinating actions has been the local justice and healing through open-air Gacaca (“short grass”) people’s courts who dealt with perhaps 1 million cases.
The film Ben'Imana hones in on a story years later, in 2012, in one village that is still struggling with reconciliation. Director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo immediately confronts us with a confrontation between a man accused of murdering a woman’s husband and children: he denies it vehemently, the mother insists he is guilty, but pressed by the community court, spits out the words, “I forgive”.
Veneranda becomes an ardent member of the local National Unity and Reconciliation Commission. She has turned her fury into strong backing of the need for reconciliation, though others prefer justice. She leads sessions that try to engage both victims and perpetrators, or their families because many of the men in the predominantly female village are in jail.
She is put to the test, however when her own 18-year-old daughter gets pregnant and mum sees the father as an untrustworthy, unreliable youth, apparently because of his modern haircut and habits but, it turns out, in reality because the boy’s family are Hutus. And also, as more truths spill out, because of the mother’s own past actions.
In her beautifully filmed and acted, remarkably impressive first full-length film, Dusabejambo spins a moving, heart-breakingly painful story, about vulnerable human beings trying to get on with their lives despite the burdens of the past, and despite differences of approach between generations, rather like South Africa’s “born-frees” who know nothing of apartheid.
There has been tragedy on an unimaginable scale, there’s much sadness, but it’s not a depressing film, and it should be seen and thought about.
As we have just seen once more in Gaza, Never Again has proved hollow and we need to be prepared for when it reoccurs.Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi in Ben'Imana