Romeo Dallaire seems to be the only human in the world with a conscience. That it's eating him alive makes Shake Hands required viewing, perhaps even at the UN.

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Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:47
Fresh:43
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.6/10
Consensus: A gut-wrenching documentary about the man in charge of the UN peace keeping force during the 1994 Rwanda genocide of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus.
Theatrical Release:May 18, 2005 Limited
Synopsis: In 100 days - between April 6 and July 16, 1994 - an estimated 800,000 men, women and children were brutally killed in the obscure African country of Rwanda. The victims - many horrifically hacked... In 100 days - between April 6 and July 16, 1994 - an estimated 800,000 men, women and children were brutally killed in the obscure African country of Rwanda. The victims - many horrifically hacked to death with machetes - were Tutsi, and moderate Hutus who supported them. One man was tasked by the United Nations with ensuring that peace was maintained in Rwanda - Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire. But unsupported by U.N. headquarters and its Security Council far away in New York, Dallaire and his handful of soldiers were incapable of stopping the genocide. After ten years of mental torture, reliving the horrors daily and more than once attempting suicide, Roméo Dallaire has poured out his soul in an extraordinary book. Shake Hands With The Devil is a cri de coeur. The General pulls no punches in his condemnation of top UN officials, expedient Belgian policy makers and senior members of the Clinton administration who chose to do nothing as Dallaire pleaded for reinforcements and revised rules of engagement. Dallaire is convinced that, with a few thousand more troops and a mandate to act pre-emptively, he could have stopped the killings. His impotence, at a time of extreme crisis, preys on his conscience still. The experienced Canadian documentary production company, White Pine Pictures, secured the documentary rights to General Dallaire’s book and exclusive access to follow him during his first return trip to Rwanda, in April 2004 - the 10th anniversary of the genocide. We were there as he revisited the killing fields that haunt him. Shake Hands With The Devil is the most powerful documentary produced about the Rwandan genocide. Unflinching. Gut-wrenching. Challenging. Hard-hitting. This is appointment television for viewers throughout the world who care about human rights and international justice. -- © White Pine Pictures [More]
Starring: Romeo Dallaire
Starring: Romeo Dallaire
Director: Peter Raymont
Director: Peter Raymont
Producer: Peter Raymont, Lindalee Tracy
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Reviews for Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo...
We never get a satisfying re-creation of the events for which Dallaire now suffers.
It gives us a man who could have stopped the carnage -- 800,000 murdered in 100 days -- but whose hands were bound at the highest level. He knows this, it haunts him, and if it doesn't shame you, it should.
More than finger pointing and a recap of events. By delving into Dallaire's psyche, it becomes an emotional and poignant journey.
Gut-wrenching, incredibly moving, and informative about a man who still suffers and a country that still mourns.
In a way, Shake Hands With the Devil puts the best of Western conscience on display -- and it's not a pretty sight.
A far more resonant film than that offered by concurrent narrative feature Hotel Rwanada.
Dallaire's horrifying memoir casts the sudden, savage murder of 800,000 Rwandans as a foreseeable event that could have been easily prevented had any country in the international community cared to even try.
Raymont gets the most out of what little footage and still photographs remain from 1994.
Peter Raymont's film is a respectful portrait of Roméo Dallaire, the Canadian commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1994.
Poses an essential question: How can you shame an international community that, even now, seems constitutionally incapable of it?
Offers a rare and privileged portrait of a heroic man profoundly troubled by a terrible experience.
There are two fascinating stories here – the genocide and the personal aftermath – but Raymont succeeds only partly in the first and not at all in the second.
Shake Hands is less about one man than about a U.N. structurally incapable of carrying out its peacekeeping mandate, then and now.
You can't imagine a worse situation, but at the same time it's hard to imagine that a better man could've been on the scene, even if he was rendered powerless in the face of evil.
The result is at once a document of destruction (via narration and newsreel footage), an indictment of the world community, and a testimony to the resilience of those abandoned people.
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| 90% 90% | The White Ribbon | 12/30 |
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