My Neighbor My Killer

When peace comes, how do you make it right again? An epic emotional journey in search of co-existence in Rwanda.

Could you ever forgive the people who slaughtered your family? In 1994, Rwanda’s Hutu populace was incited to wipe out the country’s Tutsi minority. From the crowded capital to the smallest village, local “patrols” massacred lifelong friends and family members, most often with machetes and improvised weapons. In 1999, the government began the Gacaca (ga-CHA-cha)—open-air hearings with citizen-judges meant to try their neighbors and rebuild the nation. As part of this experiment in reconciliation, tens of thousands of confessed genocide killers are sent home from prison, while traumatized survivors are asked to forgive them and live side-by-side. In My Neighbor My Killer, award-winning filmmaker Anne Aghion has filmed for over a decade in a tiny rural hamlet, and 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 life renewed, she captures the emotional journey to co-existence.

DVD coming in March 2009.