This is feature film whose story was written and produced in the year 2004 by Terry George. The main aim of this write up is to interrogate the manner by which Rwandan Genocide is represented in Hotel Rwanda and how the film portrays the intercultural communication. Paul Rusesabagina a Hutu man who is married to Tutsi lady Tatiana is the house manager of the Des Milles Hotel in Kigali. This hotel is owned by Sabena (The National Airline of Belgium). Paul, is loved by his bosses due to his effective nature of his competence. Paul thought that the native population has a whole who are not directly engaged in the conflict will be protected by the UN peace keeping forces and thus the world is watching yet it happened that Europeans enormously evacuated the country and abandoned the native to slaughter each other .Paul was able to get his immediate relatives to the hotel which was still largely seen as century .He also extended his heart and accepted other people who escaped war weather they are Hutu or Tutsi .The UN peace keeping team led by Colonel Oliver were gagged from combating the executers leading to exacerbation of killing.
Intercultural communication is a discipline that studies communication across different cultures and social groups, or how culture affects communication. It also entails understanding the different cultures, language and customs of people. In the Terry Georges film which entitled, Hotel Rwanda. There are three key constructs are seen are privileged and disadvantage dialects, racial and ethnic History and the value orientation. It is evident that these intercultural communication constraints greatly impact interactions between different actors in the movie and influence outcome of the plot.
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In the analyzing of the movie, privilege and disadvantage dialects take the center stage in communication between Hutu and Tutsi characters. The film depicts it where the Hutu make use of derogatory names for Tutsi as “cockroach and dirt.” We see this tension in explicitly seething eye contact between Tutsi characters and end up beating of characters to death. The burning question that we should ask over ourselves is that why there is these deep hatred in Hutu and Tutsi society. This question can be answered by examining the privilege and disadvantage dialect. The film is trying to tell us that those working with agriculture are classified as Hutu, while Tutsi own things like cattle and were consequently privileged.
The film also portrays that only Tutsi attended school and took part in the government affairs. This is very crucial because paying attention to this privilege and disadvantage in communication enables us to explore the core being the Hutu and Tutsi disagreement. The capability to observe disadvantages and privileges is important because it impacts the way people communicate.
Value orientation bear equal importance when it comes to evaluating factors unsetting communication scene between two characters Colonel Oliver and Paul Rusesabagina. Colonel Oliver’s reasoning why United Nations solders will not intervene in the conflict is “you are black. You are not a nigger. You are African.” Because Colonel Oliver is not African ethnicity ,viewers can construe or gain the understanding that the Non –African do not value the Africans enough to intervene .One can argue in that perspective that there is some sense of inequality .It is unfortunate value because mere physical features define whether or not a group of humanity are helped .This gives us physical characteristics which influences communication .From this we can conclude that people give preferences to those with similar physical qualities and reject those in contrast to their own likeness.
It is also important to examine the psychological effect this privilege and disadvantage interplay has on Hutu and Tutsi peoples. Based on general film observation, it can be concluded that Tutsi are snobbish and luxury driven sect of society who look down on Hutu people .This feeling of superiority is intriguing because the privilege / disadvantage is a driving force behind the movies communication tension.
Analyzing intercultural communication, constraints also bring about the films relationship with racial and ethnic histories. Contrasting between racial and ethnic histories cause key conflicts between film characters. Paul Rusesabagina stipulated to Jack distinctions of Hutu and Tutsi women. Paul makes mention of the measurement tool and “forced identification “in order to distinguish between the two women. I found the journalist (Jack) reaction very unique.” They could be twins.” This shows that the difference in Hutu and Tutsi people is not based on physical disparity, although movie character perpetuates this notion out of proportion. This hatred can be caused by ethnic histories which involved the labeling of Tutsi people and subsequently persecute them.
In summation, the important ethnic divisions within Rwanda culture between Hutu and Tutsi in the film are based on perception of historical group origins rather than real cultural differences. Both Hutu and Tutsi group speak same language practice the same religion. The Tutsi could be determined by their taller slighter build, lighter skin and thinner noses; By the year 1994, the two groups were visibly indistinguishable because of the mixed percentages. This is portrayed in the film Hotel Rwanda when journalist ask two women what ethnicity they are; It came out clear that one is Hutu and another one Hutu. The journalist say that they look alike and they can be twins.
References
Ho, A. K. (Producer), & George, T. (Producer/Director). (2004). Hotel Rwanda [Motion
Picture]. United States: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Home
Entertainment.
Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2010). Intercultural Communication In
Contexts . New York, New York: McGraw Hill.
