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BEYOND THE GATES Send This Review to a Friend
A vital film that merits more attention than it is getting, “Beyond the Gates” tells a powerful story of our time. It not only vividly dramatizes true events involving the genocide against the Tutsi population by the Hutu in Rwanda, but it reveals the abandonment by United Nations forces of Tutsi who have sought refuge from machete-armed throngs waiting to assassinate helpless men, woman and children. As a result of the UN betrayal, some 2500 were slaughtered.
The time is April, 1994, the setting a secondary school in Kigali, Rwanda, called the Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO), which was also being used as a UN army base. The 2500 refugees sought shelter at the base against the genocide beyond its gates.
John Hurt portrays Father Christopher, the priest of the church at the school and base and a long-time resident of Africa, a dedicated clergyman who struggles to maintain his faith in the face of un-Godly events. Hugh Dancy plays Joe Connor, an idealistic teacher who is appalled at what is happening and will have to face a moral dilemma along with Father Christopher. Should they seize the opportunity to escape or stay to help in the face of certain death?
Director Michael Caton-Jones succeeds in recreating the horrors on location, and many of his crew members were survivors who lost relatives in the course of the genocide that overall claimed the lives of 800,000 Tutsi. The film moves convincingly through the buildup to the moment of truth when the UN local force follows orders not to become involved in defending the Tutsi but to withdraw. The situation is symbolic of the world allowing genocide to occur.
“Beyond the Gates” is solid drama as well as a forceful expose. An IFC Films release.
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