Munyurangabo February 26, 2010

This series is free and open to the public. All films are shown in Jepson Hall 118 unless otherwise noted. Friday showings are at 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday showings are at 7:30 p.m. The films are shown in the original language with English subtitles. For more information, please contact Paul Portefield.

February 26 & 28
Rwanda, 2007
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung
97 minutes (No MPAA rating)

Within the Rwanda capital, Kigali, two adolescent boys discover their friendship is not immune to the ghosts of their past. Director Lee Isaac Chung portrays the genocide in Rwanda through the lives of Munyurangabo (Jeff Rutagengwa) and Sangwa (Eric Ndorunkundiye) who have been together surviving though one is a Tutsi and the other a Hutu. Munyurangabo, still out to avenge his parents death from the Rwandan genocide, joins Sangwa on a journey to his family farm, which he left years early much to the dismay of his parents. With a machete stolen by Munyurangabo from the local marketplace, all seems well as the boys begin their passage. Upon reaching the family farm, the boys are received by Sangwa's welcoming mother and reluctant father, both of whom disapprove of their son's friendship with Munyurangabo. His machete remains a symbol throughout their stay as a reminder of the horrors that lie in their recent pasts. Shot in Rwanda in only two weeks, Chung directed only local actors in the first film in the Kinyarwanda language. Munyurangabo has been described as a "cultural melting pot of participants" as it includes two African main characters, a white American screenwriter (Samuel Gray Anderson), and a first generation Korean American director. The young filmmaker's masterful debut takes on the raw and complex reality of Rwanda while showcasing a society of Rwandans who are considerate of one another though they are from different tribes. First shown in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2007 Canned Film Festival, Munyurangabo has won Best Narrative Feature at the Sarasota Film Festival and the grand jury prize at the AFI Film Festival.

Official Website: http://library.richmond.edu/mrc/international-film-series.html