Sometimes In April

After earning a wider reputation with his previous film, LUMUMBA (made in the year 2000), Raoul Peck trains his eye once again on Africa’s recent history in his new work, which takes place against the backdrop of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 that claimed the lives of one million people and forced 3.5 million men, women and children into exile.
The Hutu militia’s massacre of the Tutsis and moderates among their own people began on the morning of 7 April, after Hutu president Habyarimana’s aircraft was shot down during its descent over the capital, Kigali. The slaughter commences within hours of the attack. Streets are blockaded and Interahamwe militia begin to torture and to kill.
One Hutu soldier is Augustin Muganza. He and his comrade Xavier defy their military superiors’ instructions in order to get Augustin’s Tutsi wife and children to safety. But Augustin fails to reach them and is arrested. He has no idea what has happened to his family, but has little hope for their survival.
Ten years later, he decides to put the past behind him and start a new life with his girlfriend, Martine. The couple attend the UN tribunal in Arusha, where Augustin’s brother, Honoré, must answer to a Truth and Reconciliation commission for the inflammatory role that he and other journalists played in this devastating civil war…