My Neighbor, My Killer

My Neighbor, My Killer

Anne Aghion
France / USA, 2009, 80’

Website
http://www.gacacafilms.com/index.html

AWARDS and FESTIVALS
Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival, 2009
Winner of the Human Rights Watch Nestor Almendros Prize for Courage in Filmmaking, 2009
Silverdocs, Documentary Film Festival, 2009

PRESS QUOTE
“‘My Neighbor My Killer’ tells the personal stories of the victims and perpetrators in a quiet, intimate manner. There are no corpses, no violence — just the words of the survivors, giving testimony on the past madness and the difficult future.” ~ Anita Kirpalani, Newsweek

SYNOPSIS
In 1994, hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Hutus were incited to wipe out the country’s Tutsi minority. In 1999 the government began the Gacaca; open-air hearings where citizen-judges are to try their neighbors and rebuild the nation. As part of this experiment in reconciliation, confessed genocide killers are sent home from prison, while traumatized survivors are asked to forgive them and resume living with them side-by-side. Filming for close to a decade in a tiny village, award-winning filmmaker Anne Aghion has charted the impact of the Gacaca on survivors and perpetrators alike. Through their fear and anger, accusations and defenses, blurry truths, inconsolable sadness, and hope for a life renewed, she captures their emotional journey to coexistence.