Filmstalker: Shake Hands with the Devil movie

Shake Hands with the Devil is set to become a movie and already has a director and star assigned. For those of you who don't know the book is the account of the UN Commander on hand in Rwanda of the UN and the Worlds failings to help the people who were being slaughtered during the genocide. An event the UN countries bickered over and tried to ignore and hide.

The book is spectacularly moving, and you wonder how he and his troops managed to make it through alive, some didn't, and that just adds to the burden that Roméo Dallaire had to carry. I whole heartedly recommend the book, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Romeo Dallaire from Amazon UK, it's a harrowing and compelling read.

According to Variety through Cinematical a director and star have already been chosen:

The film will be directed by Roger Spotiswoode (The 6th Day) and will star Roy Dupuis (The Barbarian Invasion) as Dallaire.

Quite rightly the pick up on the length of the book, and also its breadth. It covers a lot of ground and it will be interesting to see what the film can expect to cover. Will it present a humanised story, will it represent the countries involved in the poor light that they deserve? We have to wait and see.

This isn't the first to cover this topic though, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire was a documentary release in 2004 about the events and Dallaire's return to Rwanda.

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It seems odd that they would make another movie about this when there's already the Shake Hands With The Devil documentary and Hotel Rwanda.

And Roger Spotiswoode? I'm not sure I trust the director of "Stop or My Mom Will Shoot" and "Turner & Hooch" to direct a serious movie like this. But I suppose everyone deserves a chance to re-invent themselves at some point. ;)

-- Sean

Posted by: Sean | May 31, 2006 3:57 PM

Having read the book the Hotel Rwanda incident is perhaps a chapters worth, if that, in the entire book. Same with the Shooting Dogs incident.

They are important parts indeed, but they form a small part of the entire book, so there's much much more to be taken from the complete story of the genocide and the abandonment of the people.

As for Spotiswoode, I would hire him on the strength of "And the Band Played on" alone. "Hiroshima" is also another strong offering from him.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | May 31, 2006 4:33 PM