A harrowing but life-affirming drama set in 1994 when the bloody civil war between the Hutus and Tutsis threatened the lives of countless innocent people. A 2011 Sundance Audience Award Winner.

Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Kinyawanda is refreshingly humanistic and life affirming in its depiction of the genocidal horrors that took place during the civil war in 1994 Rwanda. The film is structured as a series of six interlocking stories of survivors of the war. A young girl’s previously orderly life is torn apart when her parents are killed; a terrified priest must find the inner strength to help the people around him; an elderly Imam’s mosque becomes overwhelmed by people seeking refuge from the violence. Intercut with the stories of the war are scenes set a few years later at a reconciliation camp, where the perpetrators of the crimes are taught to repent. The success of the film is that it does not focus on the atrocities but instead focuses on the innocent people trapped and threatened in a world where neighbor fights against neighbor and where death can occur at any time. An emotional, thought-provoking, gripping drama filmed with a startling cast of non-professional actors in a film which celebrates human resilience and faith over the darker forces of man. (English and Kinyarwanda with English subtitles) -- Raymond Murray