The Rwanda Film Festival initiated in 2005 by Eric Kabera, an established Rwandan film maker with over 15 years experience is celebrating 12 years. The festival (RFF) grew out of a culture dominated by music and film was a rarerity.

“The platform mainly depended on external support for funding,” explains Victor Kagimba, the festival co-ordinator. With barely any local film makers, the festival was dominated by foreign film projects, which hardly motivated the locals. RFF aims at creating a platform where local and international film, media professionals, film makers and lovers celebrate film, with the core objective of taking Rwanda to the world, as well as bring the world closer to Rwanda.

The local film maker’s entry into the festival was evident through films which revolved around the 1994 Rwandan genocide theme. “Today, the festival brings forth works from a number of locally made film makers,” he said.

The week long festival has over time been organised under various themes, which yields a different face and nature of. Constituting of majorly film screening sessions and workshops with local film makers, the festival gradually gains recognition each year.

“Versatility,” this year’s theme shows how Rwanda has gained stability in recent years, “It places emphasis on how Rwanda has been able to adapt and join the world,” he said.

When the call for submissions was made, 750 films, from over 60 countries were received. Of these, quite a few were from Africa, with a majority from South America and Europe, “It may be that these countries has seen the appeal of Africa as a possible market that they haven’t explored,” explains Ceke Mathenge, the festival’s film curator and programmer.

Multi-award winning

“We have opted to give prominence to mostly short films over features, so as to explore various potential acts from different walks of life. We hope it reflects the diversity of the festival this year, since the film represents many places around the world,” he said.

The opening night which took place at the Kigali Convention Centre’s Cinema Complex last Saturday featured three Rwandan short films which included Ishaba, Rwanda Rwacu, Mahiu, alongside The Untouchables, a 2012 multi-award winning French feature film by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano setting the pace for a week of film culture celebration.

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Though born in Kigali, the festival, also known as Hillywood, this year stretched to Discover Rwanda in Gisenyi, Hillywood Centre in Rwamagana alongside Kigali’s Kwetu Film Institute and Rwanda hostel, where screening has been carried out till July 29.

Rwanda and Juliet, an 88-minute English film directed by Ben Proudfoot, a Canadian is one of the special features. 

The award winning film shot three years ago in Rwanda has received immense recognition throughout international festivals follows a Shakespearean scholar mounting of Romeo and Juliet, with local students, many of whom were orphaned by the 1994 genocide, also capturing moments. 

Rwanda and Juliet follows eccentric Ivy League Prof Andrew Garrod to Kigali, Rwanda, where he expects to mount a production of Romeo and Juliet with a cast of students from both Hutu and Tutsi backgrounds.

Just as it is between the Montague and Capulet families in Romeo and Juliet, Prof Garrod believes the parallels between Shakespeare’s classic tragedy and the experiences of the cast, most of whom lost family members to violent deaths or imprisonment, will serve to enhance the already existing reconciliation process in the country.