In his latest documentary film, Belgian director Bernard Bellefroid tells the story of three children killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
In the film titled "One of a Thousand Hills," Bellefroid seeks out the killers of Fiacre Manzi, Fideline Mukamanzi and Olivier Kayishema, children of Christiane and Fidele Ngarambe, an agronomist who lived in Mushirarungu in Nyanza District. The film was shot on two hills in Nyanza: Mushirarungu and Muyira.
"One of a Thousand Hills" is Bellefroid's second film on Rwanda. The first, "Rwanda, Hills Are Speaking," which was released in 2005, focussed on the Gacaca courts which tried hundreds of thousands of Genocide suspects.
In "One of a Thousand Hills" Bellefroid chose to tell Rwanda's story through an approach known as the "microhistory", which focuses an individual case, event or a neighbourhood to reflect the larger situation.
In 1994, Manzi was four years old, Mukamanzi five and Kayishema nine. They were killed after they had been separated from their parents. Their mother was killed hours after their separation and the genocidaires were hunting for their father.
Ngarambe's family is one of the thousands of families that were wiped out during the Genocide against the Tutsi, which claimed more than one million lives within three months.
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In the film narrated by himself, Bellefroid tries to restore the children's images, since no photos could be found.
"The village genocidaires not only exterminated them, they erased all trace of their existence," says Bellefroid. "No more photographs, house, funerary monument, register of births or deaths ... As if they had been erased from history; as if they had never been born; as if the genocide had succeeded."
To restore the children's faces, Marguerite Nyirantezimana, who was their carer, and her son reimagine the shapes of their heads and facial features to an artist.
Nyirantezimana and her son Emmanuel lived with Ngarambe's children until their killers came to take them.
Before their death, the children moved from one house to another as their safety was shrinking and hid in the bushes. First, they were taken in by one Asiel Bagenzi, now a Genocide convict.
Bagenzi later got rid of the children after his neighbour, another convicted genocidaire, warned him that keeping the children in his house would result in his own death.
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The killing of Manzi, Mukamanzi and Kayishema
After being chased from Bagenzi's house, Manzi, Mukamanzi and Kayishema fled to Israel Dusingizimana, who was the councillor of Mushirarungu Sector and a friend of Ngarambe's.
They were received by Dusingizimana's mother. Little did they know that Dusingizimana was no longer a friend. While at Dusingizimana's, the children found that he had stolen their father's motorbike and one of their cows was among those kept at the former councillor's place.
Dusingizimana oversaw the Genocide in Mushirarungu and used Ngarambe's motorbike during the massacre. He was convicted of Genocide and is serving his sentence in Nyarugenge Correctional Facility.
The children left Dusingizimana's place to reconnect with Nyirantezimana, their carer. It is not clear if they were chased or if they asked to leave. Israel's mother says they insisted on reconnecting with Nyirantezimana.
For days, Nyirantezimana was threatened that she would be killed with Ngarambe's children if she continued to hide them in her house.
Manzi, Mukamanzi and Kayishema were taken from Nyirantezimana's house by a mob led by a man called Pierre Rekeraho, who held a club. They also took belongings of Ngarambe's family that Nyirantezimana had kept at her house.
In the evening, on the day the children were snatched from Nyirantezimana, Kayishema, the oldest of them, was killed right away. Manzi and Mukamanzi were hacked but did not die immediately. Villagers remember hearing their screams throughout the night. In the morning, a young man came back to finish them off.
The Gacaca trial of Obed Bayavuge
In 2005, Bellefroid filmed the Gacaca trial of the people linked to the killing of Fiacre Manzi, Fideline Mukamanzi and Olivier Kayishema. In the trial, Nyirantezimana testified against Rekeraho, who denied killing the children.
One Obed Bayavuge was accused of killing the children. Bayavuge denied killing them, but admitted having seen the children's lifeless bodies near his house.
Bayavuge was found guilty by the Gacaca court of Mushirarungu and sentenced to 13 years in prison and was ordered to pay reparations. He had spent eight years and seven months in detention, and the remaining four years and five months was spent on community service.
After the Gacaca hearing, Bayavuge partially admitted to the children's grandfather Alphonse Sebudakaraba that he could not distance himself from the children's murder and asked for forgiveness.
Manzi, Mukamanzi and Kayishema are laid to rest at the Nyanza Genocide Memorial.
Sebudakaraba believed that those implicated in his grandchildren's killing had not come out and shared all information about everyone's involvement. Before his death, Sebudakaraba asked Bellefroid to find out the killers of his grandchildren.
That became the inspiration behind "One of a Thousand Hills." And yet, not much was uncovered by the film. The murder of Fiacre Manzi, Fideline Mukamanzi and Olivier Kayishema remains unexplained.
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"One of a Thousand Hills" is also a story of Rwanda's recovery, forgiveness and reconciliation after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
In the film, Bellefroid tells another story on a hill in Muyira. It is the story of Jean d'Amour Karera who forgave his children's killer Felix after he came to confess to him.
It took years before Karera could forgive Felix, who hacked his children and left them to be devoured by dogs. Finally, Karera forgave Felix and his accomplices and they have since reunited.
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"Forgiveness is a gift; you cannot force yourself to forgive," he says. "I sincerely forgave them. Today, if we were attacked, we would defend one another." But Karera has not forgotten his children.
The poignancy of Bellefroid's One of a Thousand Hills
Bellefroid succeeded in telling Rwanda's story through the two cases of Ngarambe and Karera's children.
"One of a Thousand Hills" comprises many stories. It is a story of children killed after being separated from their parents; the ordeal of being betrayed by your parents' friends and hiding out in the bushes; the story of the unexplained murders, of wiped-out families; the story of an everlasting memory of loved ones; a story of forgiveness; and of reconciliation. It is the story of Rwanda and its rebirth.
To use the words of the narrator, the story of the two boys and their sister is "a story of one hill, in the name of all the hills."
The film sought to "rehumanise" the children, and tell Rwanda's "impressive job of rebuilding the society," through Gacaca trials and subsequent reconciliation, Bellefroid said in an interview with The New Times. "I think this must interest the world. This film follows the history of Rwanda, from 1994 through Gacaca trials in 2005 and then the questions of unity and reconciliation in 2022."
The film was premiered at Kigali Genocide Memorial and screened in different places in Rwanda in April. At least 5,000 people have watched it in Rwanda.
