Munyurangabo is a 2007 film directed by Lee Isaac Chung. Filmed entirely in Rwanda with local actors, it is the first narrative feature film in the Kinyarwanda language. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival on 24 May and won the Grand Prize at the 2007 AFI Fest American critic Roger Ebert calls it "in every frame a beautiful and powerful film — a masterpiece."
Plot
After stealing a machete from a market in Kigali, Munyurangabo and his friend Sangwa leave the city to return to their village. Munyurangabo seeks justice for his parents, who were killed in the Rwandan genocide, while Sangwa wants to return to the home he left years ago. Although the two boys had planned to stay only a few hours, they end up spending several days. But, because they are from two different tribes, their friendship is sorely tried. Sangwa's parents distrust Munyurangabo, and warn their son that Hutus and Tutsis are supposed to be enemies.
According to The New York Times, prior to the making of the film, director Lee Isaac Chung's wife Valerie, an art therapist, had traveled to Rwanda as a volunteer to work with those affected by the 1994 genocide. At her urging, Chung accompanied her to Rwanda and volunteered to teach a filmmaking class at a relief base in Kigali in the summer of 2006. Sensing an opportunity to present the contemporary reality of Rwanda and to provide his students with practical film training, Chung arrived with a nine-page outline which he had written with the help of old friend Samuel Gray Anderson. Chung shot Munyurangabo over 11 days, working with a team of nonprofessional actors Chung found through local orphanages and his students as crew members.
Critical reception
Munyurangabo has received highly positive reviews from critics. According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of critics have given the film a positive review with an average rating of 7.84/10, based on 25 reviews. Roger Ebert calls Munyurangabo "in every frame a beautiful and powerful film — a masterpiece." In his 2007 Cannes Film Festival review, Variety critic Robert Koehler describes it as "by several light years -- the finest and truest film yet on the moral and emotional repercussions of the 15-year-old genocide that wracked Rwanda." Writing in Film Comment, the late critic Robin Wood similarly described the film as a "masterpiece" and "an authentically beautiful film".
Subsequent development
Lee Isaac Chung continues to mentor young Rwandan filmmakers through Almond Tree Rwanda, the Rwandan outpost for his U.S.-based production company, Almond Tree Films. Almond Tree Rwanda has produced several acclaimed shorts that have traveled to international festivals.
