Screening: Shades of True + Q&A

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Alexandre Westphal via Skype.

Within the space of three short months in 1994, a million people were murdered in the genocide in Rwanda. Populated by two irreconcilable tribes — the Tutsis and the majority Hutus — the country had long been steeped in a divisive antagonism.

Hutu women as well as men took up arms, violently killing their neighbours and taking commanding roles within armed groups. In Shades of True eight female perpetrators who have been imprisoned for their involvement in the genocide recount their experiences with clarity and self-scrutiny.

Immaculée admits to being an “animal” and undeserving of her traumatised son Jérôme’s forgiveness. He laments, “What is dirty will never regain its purity.” Filmmakers Violaine Baraduc and Alexandre Westphal guide us through some of the darkest atrocities of war by way of the women’s memories — and by the impossible love between a mother and her son.

Directed by Alexandre Westphal and Violaine Baraduc
Country: France
Runtime: 88′