BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. In the massacre which took place over a hundred days, more than 800,000 minority Tutsis were slaughtered by members of the Hutu majority. This week, mourners collapsed in grief during a commemoration in Kigali.

  [SOUND OF MOURNERS]

In 2001, Nick Hughes directed and coproduced 100 Days, the first feature film depicting the 1994 genocide. It was shot at the actual scene of mass murder, with people who had actually been there and seen it all. But it isn’t a documentary. Hughes and his co-producer Eric Kabera, who lost 32 family members during those hundred days, sought a new way to tell the story. So they hired witnesses, Tutsis and Hutus, as actors.

  [CLIP]:

MAN:  Get rid of women and their baby rats! Don’t leave any rats for the future!

  [CROWD CHEERS]

The time for work is now.

  [CROWD CHEERING]

What we have waited for is happening!

  [CONTINUED CHEERS][END CLIP]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:   When I spoke with Director Nick Hughes in 2002, I asked him why he decided to tell the story of such a dramatic historical event as a fictional drama.

NICK HUGHES:  I, I worked on so many documentaries after the genocide, and in many ways documentary is the best way to tell the history of such an enormous event as the genocide in Rwanda. But documentaries about Rwanda aren't watched, and 100 Days is made to explain in a dramatic form, to explain what happened in Rwanda to an audience who has no interest in Rwanda.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Two of the most important characters in 100 Days are Josette and Baptiste, both young lovers. Was this lovers’ subplot a way of drawing people in?

NICK HUGHES:  You know, love is a universal theme. The audience, even if they're in Tokyo or Toronto, can immediately relate to the hopes and fears of that couple.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  I'd like to share with you my reaction to the movie. It seemed to me that when you cleaved closest to the actual events it had the most impact, and when you moved off to the plots that you had imposed to attract the audience, because the actors were, frankly, rather wooden, it was when my mind began to wander.

NICK HUGHES:  Indeed. I mean none of the actors are professional actors, but they are Rwandan and they were portraying something under whose shadow they lived and from which they had lived. I think it would be terribly wrong to have a full glossy Hollywood film made, because at that point that's where you bring in all sorts of stories which have absolutely nothing to do with the genocide. And that's what's going to happen in the next year. There’s going to be many films made about people who did little in the genocide or portrayed people in the genocide, and they're going to be presented as, as heroes. 100 Days doesn't do that.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I was fascinated by your use of the extraneous characters who came through the, the UN soldiers, the journalists. You have journalists, people holding cameras, just as you yourself did during the actual genocide, scattered all through.

 [FILM CLIP]:

WOMAN:  Were they Tutsi?

MAN:  I, I, I don't know. Yes, they – they were Tutsi.

WOMAN:  Is that why they killed them?

MAN:  I don't know. I don't think so.

WOMAN:  Who were they?

MAN:  They were friends. Mr. Kabera was not liked! He was in an opposition political party.

WOMAN:  Is that why they killed him?

MAN: I, I don't know, maybe, maybe.

 [END CLIP]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  They're generally in the way. They're irrelevant. They're taking no moral stand, and they have no impact on what's going on around them. It's as if they were dropped from the moon.

NICK HUGHES:  Yeah, well I think that's exactly what happens. You had UN soldiers from the West. You had aid workers. You had ex-pats. You had journalists. All of them betrayed the Rwandan people. The media took absolutely no part in the genocide and in exposing it to the international community. It brushed it off with clichés, caricatures. The aid workers, 99 percent of them, just got on the plane and left. The ex-pats just left their servants to be slaughtered while they evacuated their dogs. And the UN, who were there to keep the peace, just ran away.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  It’s clear that you don't have much respect for those characters who wander through your story. You don't pay much attention to them at all, and yet, you yourself, when you were there, videotaped a machete-wielding man beating a woman and her daughter pleading for their lives, and it was broadcast all over the world in 1994. Do you think it did nothing?

NICK HUGHES:  Well, it was something very, very small. I mean, I didn't save anybody. I didn't put my camera down and save any children. And nor did anybody else. And, and nor did those people who, who sat at home and watched those two women being murdered, watching their television in, in Europe or America. Nothing happened. There was no great outcry for something to be done.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  In an effort to tell your story in a way that would be popular and not cheapen or distort it, you tried to cleave a sort of middle course. You put in a love story but you offered no redemption for any of the characters. There isn't anybody who is saved. There isn't anybody who isn't irreparably damaged. Here's a clip of a little girl talking to a U.N. soldier in, in front of one of the mass graves.

 [CLIP]:

U.N. SOLDIER:  Did you see what happened?

GIRL:  They put all the Tutsis in the ground and in the pit latrines.

U.N. SOLDIER:  Did you know them?

GIRL:  My friend Anton is there with his whole family.

U.N. SOLDIER:  If he was your friend, don't you miss him?

GIRL:  No, he belongs in a pit latrine. It's natural. He was a Tutsi. They killed all the Tutsis because Tutsis smell bad.

  [END CLIP]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Given that the story ends on a note of absolute despair is there any technique, including a love story, that you think would be able to keep the audience there?

NICK HUGHES:  There is nothing positive about genocide. You can't come out with some glimmer of hope. Genocide is all negative. It is all dark and evil. And the suffering that people go through is beyond imagination. But if there's some understanding and some sympathy and, and there's some belief that Rwandans are human beings amongst an international audience, then that's, that's a great step.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Nick, now that you made the film that you wanted to make, do you think you can find a way to forgive yourself a little bit?

NICK HUGHES:  Well, it's not really a matter of forgive.  

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  I guess what I mean is - 

NICK HUGHES:  Yeah.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  - it's obvious that you came away with an enormous burden and a sense of responsibility that you don't feel you've fulfilled and that the rest of the Western community in Rwanda certainly didn't fulfill, and you made this film. So my question is, is can you leave it alone now?

NICK HUGHES:  Well, it - the film gives me an opportunity to speak about Rwanda but I don't get the opportunity to go back and stop by the side of the road and pick up a child who's going to be murdered by the Interhamwe and take him out of the country to safety. And nor does anybody else get that opportunity to do that again. And nobody said anything about stopping it happening next time.

So no, I don't think there is anything really to feel positive about or redeemed about, not at all. Genocide is the opposite of redemption. There is no redemption. You can't go back. Those people are dead, and it will happen again.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Nick, it's been a pleasure talking to you.

NICK HUGHES:  Thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Nick Hughes is the director and co-producer of 100 Days. I spoke to him in 2002.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. In the massacre which took place over a hundred days, more than 800,000 minority Tutsis were slaughtered by members of the Hutu majority. This week, mourners collapsed in grief during a commemoration in Kigali.

  [SOUND OF MOURNERS]

In 2001, Nick Hughes directed and coproduced 100 Days, the first feature film depicting the 1994 genocide. It was shot at the actual scene of mass murder, with people who had actually been there and seen it all. But it isn’t a documentary. Hughes and his co-producer Eric Kabera, who lost 32 family members during those hundred days, sought a new way to tell the story. So they hired witnesses, Tutsis and Hutus, as actors.

  [CLIP]:

MAN:  Get rid of women and their baby rats! Don’t leave any rats for the future!

  [CROWD CHEERS]

The time for work is now.

  [CROWD CHEERING]

What we have waited for is happening!

  [CONTINUED CHEERS][END CLIP]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:   When I spoke with Director Nick Hughes in 2002, I asked him why he decided to tell the story of such a dramatic historical event as a fictional drama.

NICK HUGHES:  I, I worked on so many documentaries after the genocide, and in many ways documentary is the best way to tell the history of such an enormous event as the genocide in Rwanda. But documentaries about Rwanda aren't watched, and 100 Days is made to explain in a dramatic form, to explain what happened in Rwanda to an audience who has no interest in Rwanda.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Two of the most important characters in 100 Days are Josette and Baptiste, both young lovers. Was this lovers’ subplot a way of drawing people in?

NICK HUGHES:  You know, love is a universal theme. The audience, even if they're in Tokyo or Toronto, can immediately relate to the hopes and fears of that couple.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  I'd like to share with you my reaction to the movie. It seemed to me that when you cleaved closest to the actual events it had the most impact, and when you moved off to the plots that you had imposed to attract the audience, because the actors were, frankly, rather wooden, it was when my mind began to wander.

NICK HUGHES:  Indeed. I mean none of the actors are professional actors, but they are Rwandan and they were portraying something under whose shadow they lived and from which they had lived. I think it would be terribly wrong to have a full glossy Hollywood film made, because at that point that's where you bring in all sorts of stories which have absolutely nothing to do with the genocide. And that's what's going to happen in the next year. There’s going to be many films made about people who did little in the genocide or portrayed people in the genocide, and they're going to be presented as, as heroes. 100 Days doesn't do that.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I was fascinated by your use of the extraneous characters who came through the, the UN soldiers, the journalists. You have journalists, people holding cameras, just as you yourself did during the actual genocide, scattered all through.

 [FILM CLIP]:

WOMAN:  Were they Tutsi?

MAN:  I, I, I don't know. Yes, they – they were Tutsi.

WOMAN:  Is that why they killed them?

MAN:  I don't know. I don't think so.

WOMAN:  Who were they?

MAN:  They were friends. Mr. Kabera was not liked! He was in an opposition political party.

WOMAN:  Is that why they killed him?

MAN: I, I don't know, maybe, maybe.

 [END CLIP]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  They're generally in the way. They're irrelevant. They're taking no moral stand, and they have no impact on what's going on around them. It's as if they were dropped from the moon.

NICK HUGHES:  Yeah, well I think that's exactly what happens. You had UN soldiers from the West. You had aid workers. You had ex-pats. You had journalists. All of them betrayed the Rwandan people. The media took absolutely no part in the genocide and in exposing it to the international community. It brushed it off with clichés, caricatures. The aid workers, 99 percent of them, just got on the plane and left. The ex-pats just left their servants to be slaughtered while they evacuated their dogs. And the UN, who were there to keep the peace, just ran away.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  It’s clear that you don't have much respect for those characters who wander through your story. You don't pay much attention to them at all, and yet, you yourself, when you were there, videotaped a machete-wielding man beating a woman and her daughter pleading for their lives, and it was broadcast all over the world in 1994. Do you think it did nothing?

NICK HUGHES:  Well, it was something very, very small. I mean, I didn't save anybody. I didn't put my camera down and save any children. And nor did anybody else. And, and nor did those people who, who sat at home and watched those two women being murdered, watching their television in, in Europe or America. Nothing happened. There was no great outcry for something to be done.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  In an effort to tell your story in a way that would be popular and not cheapen or distort it, you tried to cleave a sort of middle course. You put in a love story but you offered no redemption for any of the characters. There isn't anybody who is saved. There isn't anybody who isn't irreparably damaged. Here's a clip of a little girl talking to a U.N. soldier in, in front of one of the mass graves.

 [CLIP]:

U.N. SOLDIER:  Did you see what happened?

GIRL:  They put all the Tutsis in the ground and in the pit latrines.

U.N. SOLDIER:  Did you know them?

GIRL:  My friend Anton is there with his whole family.

U.N. SOLDIER:  If he was your friend, don't you miss him?

GIRL:  No, he belongs in a pit latrine. It's natural. He was a Tutsi. They killed all the Tutsis because Tutsis smell bad.

  [END CLIP]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Given that the story ends on a note of absolute despair is there any technique, including a love story, that you think would be able to keep the audience there?

NICK HUGHES:  There is nothing positive about genocide. You can't come out with some glimmer of hope. Genocide is all negative. It is all dark and evil. And the suffering that people go through is beyond imagination. But if there's some understanding and some sympathy and, and there's some belief that Rwandans are human beings amongst an international audience, then that's, that's a great step.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Nick, now that you made the film that you wanted to make, do you think you can find a way to forgive yourself a little bit?

NICK HUGHES:  Well, it's not really a matter of forgive.  

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  I guess what I mean is - 

NICK HUGHES:  Yeah.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  - it's obvious that you came away with an enormous burden and a sense of responsibility that you don't feel you've fulfilled and that the rest of the Western community in Rwanda certainly didn't fulfill, and you made this film. So my question is, is can you leave it alone now?

NICK HUGHES:  Well, it - the film gives me an opportunity to speak about Rwanda but I don't get the opportunity to go back and stop by the side of the road and pick up a child who's going to be murdered by the Interhamwe and take him out of the country to safety. And nor does anybody else get that opportunity to do that again. And nobody said anything about stopping it happening next time.

So no, I don't think there is anything really to feel positive about or redeemed about, not at all. Genocide is the opposite of redemption. There is no redemption. You can't go back. Those people are dead, and it will happen again.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Nick, it's been a pleasure talking to you.

NICK HUGHES:  Thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Nick Hughes is the director and co-producer of 100 Days. I spoke to him in 2002.