Roy Dupuis Shakes Hands With the Devil
Filed under: Drama, Deals, Sundance, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
After getting all weepy from watching Hotel Rwanda, I wasn't sure I could take another film about the Rwanda genocide. At least, not another dramatization of the tragedy, anyway. Rwanda is a well-made movie with excellent performances by Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo, but it really tugs on the emotions with deliberate fists. More informative and more insightful is the documentary Shake Hands with The Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire, which won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2005. Dallaire, who was partially the model for Nick Nolte's fictional character in Rwanda, was the commanding officer for the U.N.'s presence during the devastating events of 1994, and the documentary is based on his book of the same name.
Now, for no reason other than documentaries aren't as popular, the book is being adapted into a dramatic film called, simply, Shake Hands With the Devil. The film will be directed by Roger Spotiswoode (The 6th Day) and will star Roy Dupuis (The Barbarian Invasion) as Dallaire. The book is pretty long and it covers a lot of ground so it is hard to imagine all of it fitting into a movie. Since docs can generally fit more exposition into a feature-length running time, you're better off seeing Peter Raymont's Sundance winner instead. But if you like being made to cry more than think, by all means wait for the new version.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-24-2008 @ 8:37PM
Maria said...
Every time I read about the history, every time I follow the books or documentaries about crimes against humanity, from my own motherland to deep Asia and beautiful Africa all the way around the world to Latin America and east Europe, I taste the bitter taste of betrayal of the western powers in my tears. I see bloody hands of US, UK, and other colonialist and exploitive powers under the cover of lies and mistrust.. Rwanda, the horrific genocide in Rwanda, is sadly no different. Every time I am reminded to be proud of greatness of multiculturalism in my beloved Toronto, I am reminded why there are so many different cultures are here in first place. The answer, the real reason, is not beautiful not even humanistic. I know this first handed with my flesh and blood..
As a former freedom fighter, however defeated and broken/failed I may feel inside, I am deeply touched by the hard and honest work of Roger Spotiswoode and superb acting of Roy Dupius and rest of the cast. I feel you have captured the heart and conscious of your audiences and have come as close as any one ever could, to depicting the true face of failure of humanity and depth of pain in the real world as well as the beautiful minds and heroic determination of true heroes of our time like Romeo Dallaire . Peace.
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5-31-2006 @ 3:16AM
Richard Brunton said...
I read this book some time ago and it's incredibly moving and also shaming. It made me feel embarassed that the politicians that represent my country were bickering while people died, deliberately avoiding helping people. The UN once again gives another speech about how there will never be another...wherever, and here it happens again with another genocide hidden behind red tape.
This is an amazing book, and as you say Christopher, very expansive. I think it will be hard to condense it into a movie and retain what it has to say.
However I would welcome it, the more people hear about what happened there the better.
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