Shooting Dogs

Viewer Rating:spikeprint has rated Shooting Dogs rating: 1.5 Star

Kigali, Rwanda, 1994. A coup to overthrow the government has left thousands of Tutsis fearing for their lives as marauding mobs of Hutu rebels brutally slaughter their neighbours in one of the bloodiest periods of human history. Father Christopher, Hurt, runs a local school used as both a refugee camp for the Tutsis and a base for the UN. Helped by a naïve but idealistic teacher, Joe, they wait as the militia outside grows confident that the inept UN will leave. They must make the choice to flee, as most of their western counterparts are, or stay and face the massacre with the doomed refugees.   Canton-Jones last movie was Basic Instinct 2, so directing cabbage patch dolls would have been an improvement, but here it is up against Hotel Rwanda, released in 2004.  As with its predecessor Shooting Dogs is based around a real place, the Ecole Technique Officielle, and actually filmed on location in Kigali lending a sense of realism. Touchingly a lot of the cast and crew are Rwandan and actually lost people during the genocide. Although this is a compelling movie it is let down by Canton-Jones lack of depth of characters. The BBC reporter who claims that she doesn't feel as emotional because these people are just Africans is only barely touched, and the frustration felt by the UN on the ground isn't properly vented. As with many of these movies it is portrayed through the eyes of westerners unlike its superior cousin, Hotel Rwanda. A flawed but enjoyable movie.  

Review published on the 22 February 2007 20:41