Films A-Z
My Neighbor, My Killer
My Neighbor, My Killer
Anne Aghion / USA, France / 2008 / 80 min.
Coming to terms with a genocide that has cruelly robbed you of your nearest and dearest is far from easy, especially if the murderers also happen to be your neighbours. Eight hundred thousand people died in ethnic clashes between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. The country's government later set up special tribunals called Gacaca, under which the victims of the genocide have the opportunity to try the perpetrators. Anne Aghion's documentary shows several Gacaca courts in which defendants and plaintiffs face one another. In one case, a Hutu woman married to a Tutsi man is devastated by the fact that he has beaten their children to death before her very eyes. Frequently, the cases are complicated, with defendants reluctant even to accept charges and plaintiffs faced with the prospect of judging somebody who has robbed them of the will to live. How can they live side by side? How can they come to terms with the fact that their village is home to both victims and murderers? This harrowingly direct film documents a stalemate, which only time and forgiveness can resolve.
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