Communication Ideas in Hotel Rwanda: A Movie Review

Introduction

Normally, all humans communicate with one another. The practice of passing information from one person to another via a medium is known as communication. One can express themselves verbally or nonverbally. Thus, we learn about various communication concepts through the story depicted in Hotel Rwanda. This true story-inspired film shows how ethnicity can destroy an entire nation (Hotel Rwanda 2004). As a result, the paper will examine various communication concepts in the story.

Communication Concepts we Learn from Hotel Rwanda 

The story began when Rwanda’s president, a Hutu, was killed in a plane crash. Hutu politicians blamed Tutsis for the president’s death, and within hours, the Interahamwe, a loosely organized Hutu militia group, began mobilizing Hutus across Rwanda. The Hutus retaliated for what the Tutsis had done to them when they controlled them (Hotel Rwanda 2004). They began to murder many Tutsis, primarily due to ethnicity. Ethnocentrism is a sense of superiority within one’s own tribal group. Ethnocentrism caused interpersonal conflict between the two tribes, which resulted in a civil war.
Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of the opulent Hotel des Milles Collineas in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, was a Hutu. He married Tatiana, a Tutsi, and their children were considered mixed. Their marriage was a source of contention for Hutu extremists such as Interahamwe leader General George Rutaganda. As a result, there was an interpersonal conflict between Paul’s family and the General. Paul later disagreed with the General, and he had to threaten him.

As the country’s political situation deteriorated, Paul and his family witnessed their neighbors being dragged from their homes and openly beaten in the streets. This political situation shaped their perception of the events. Paul knew that they would suffer the same fate if he did nothing to assist his family. As a result of the self-fulfilling prophecy, one’s expectations of seeing a specific outcome eventually change their behavior. As a result, he felt compelled to do everything in his power to save his family…