SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: THE JOURNEY OF ROMEO DALLAIRE
July 13th 2009 10:14
Romeo Dallaire stares down his demons in Shake Hands With the Devil.
In just 100 days in early 1994, 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by hard line Hutu elements and their machete wielding militia-organised supporters. It was a crime made all the more galling by the fact that the Hutus and Tutsis were racially no more different than Dr Seuss’ Sneetches: it was a distinction cast by the country’s former Belgian overlords, who created a Tutsi upper class based purely upon certain physical features. What’s more, when a violence conceived during colonial times erupted in bloodshed, the West turned its back, not interested in the problems of a tiny African nation that had nothing to buy and nothing to sell.
Caught in the middle of the onslaught was a miserly peacekeeping force of 450 UN troops led by Canadian Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire. As the violence spiralled out of control Dallaire’s repeated requests to the UN for assistance were denied and the industrious general eventually formed an alliance with the media in an attempt to draw the West’s attention to the brutally efficient genocide that was taking place.
Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire follows the emotionally devastated former commander as he makes his way back to Rwanda for the first time in ten years. The hellish memories of 1994 hang heavy in Dallaire’s conscience and his return to the African country is an attempt to reconcile himself with his actions during the genocide.
In that sense, director Peter Raymont’s 2005 documentary is quite a straightforward film. It sticks to its subject like glue as Dallaire visits the scenes of some of the most shocking crimes, explaining his actions as he does so. All the time it juxtaposes the images with footage taken at the time of both Dallaire and the places he’s visiting.
But an approach that would be prone to producing a flat final product is leavened by its subject, and Raymont deserves plenty of kudos for identifying the gravitas that Dallaire carries onscreen. The former general is in many ways a shadow of his old self: the man from 1994 is powerful, purposeful and direct, a natural charisma being transmitted through his straight-talking methodology; the modern version is racked with doubt and troubled by a need to express his anguish, like one soaked in blood from a crime they did not commit.
Still, the film shows an individual on his way back from the brink and slowly regaining his confidence, and Dallaire’s eloquence is commendable when speaking about such terrible circumstances, particularly as the rage almost takes over during a description of the flight of the Belgian troops in his tiny contingent – in his view an almost unspeakable act of betrayal by the former colonial government.
And with such a purposefully expressive individual at the centre of their frame, the filmmakers manage to catch some fantastic moments. Dallaire visiting the National Resistance Memorial is disturbingly arresting as it pushes the recovering manic depressive’s fortitude to the absolute limit, while a grandstanding Belgian senator’s attempt to crucify the former general in front of the Rwandan media is shocking as much for its sinister setup as it is for its ham-fisted execution.
It all creates a compelling documentary that’s undoubtedly heavy going but is almost essential viewing for Western audiences. The genocide in Rwanda happened with plenty of forewarning but still the West refused to intervene, the paltry showing of first world dignitaries at the tenth anniversary illustrating that the tragedy continues to have little traction with the wider, richer global community. It’s a disturbing coda to both the film and the modern Rwandan story, leading the audience to wonder if humankind has really learned anything from this major misstep of modern history.
Check out an excerpt from Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire below:
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