Rwanda-born writer Scholastique Mukasonga’s 2012 novel “Notre-Dame du Nil” is not specifically about the 1994 Rwandan genocide but rather how class division, colonialism and economic disparity created a toxic stew of resentment and prejudice that made the genocide possible. By using a Rwandan all-girls Catholic boarding school as her microcosm, she lays out how the seeds of ethnic hatred were planted, nurtured and encouraged to blossom. Still, any adaptation of Mukasonga’s book holds the promise of being that long-awaited great film about the country’s ethnic strife and how it exploded into a historic bloodbath that saw members of Rwanda’s Hutu majority slaughter 800,000 of their countrymen, mostly members of the Tutsi minority, in only three months.
If “Our Lady of the Nile” is ultimately not the definitive telling of the genocide, it is something equally valuable: the tragedy’s illuminative prequel, a straightforward origin story faithfully adapted from an essential text.
If “Our Lady of the Nile” is ultimately not the definitive telling of the genocide, it is something equally valuable: the tragedy’s illuminative prequel, a straightforward origin story faithfully adapted from an essential text.
- 9/6/2019
- by Mark Keizer
- Variety Film + TV
Notre-Dame du Nil (Our Lady of the Nile)
Afghan filmmaker Atiq Rahimi moves into the French language with his third feature Notre-Dame du Nil (Our Lady of the Nile), produced by Marie Legrand, Rani Massalha and Dimitri Rassam (a co-production between The Drum and Chapter 2 Films). The film is based on the 2012 novel by Scholastique Mukasonga. Noted French actor Pascal Greggory presides over a cast including Amanda Mugabekazi, Albina Kirenga, Malaika Uwamahoro, Clariella Bizimana, and Belinda Rubango. Rahimi’s 2004 debut Earth and Ashes premiered in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes. His 2012 sophomore film The Patience Stone (read our read / interview) starred Golshifteh Farahani and premiered in the Toronto International Film Festival.…...
Afghan filmmaker Atiq Rahimi moves into the French language with his third feature Notre-Dame du Nil (Our Lady of the Nile), produced by Marie Legrand, Rani Massalha and Dimitri Rassam (a co-production between The Drum and Chapter 2 Films). The film is based on the 2012 novel by Scholastique Mukasonga. Noted French actor Pascal Greggory presides over a cast including Amanda Mugabekazi, Albina Kirenga, Malaika Uwamahoro, Clariella Bizimana, and Belinda Rubango. Rahimi’s 2004 debut Earth and Ashes premiered in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes. His 2012 sophomore film The Patience Stone (read our read / interview) starred Golshifteh Farahani and premiered in the Toronto International Film Festival.…...
- 1/2/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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