When the past talks to the present: fiction narrative and the ‘other’ in Hotel Rwanda

Abstract

Hotel Rwanda is a story presented through the Hutu hero, Paul Rusesabagina, and his plight for the survival of nearly 1 268 refugees in the Mille Collines Hotel during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Though Paul is the hero, the film ultimately also presents him as an ‘other’, as the reading of the genocide is ultimately through Western eyes. This article analyses how Paul is marginalised and presented as ‘other’, and argues that this representation counteracts his hero status. The discussion examines the classical Hollywood formula and draws on various notions of ‘othering’, as discussed by Edward Saïd (1979), Renata Salecl (Laclau 1994) as well as Slavoj Žižek (1997), to examine how Paul is presented as a marginalised hero who embodies various notions of the ‘other’. The discussion draws on these diverse perspectives because they provide insight into how film presents events that have actually occurred and how it promotes specific readings with reference to history, myth and narrative. The analysis also sparks questions about the types of messages that are communicated through the film about conflict in Africa.