Sweet Dreams (RWANDAN FILM REVIEW)
Sweet Dreams
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Rwandan Reconciliation Documentary Chronicles Feats of
Remarkable Female Drumming Troupe
The 1994 Civil War left the
beleaguered African nation of Rwanda
a bloody mess, both literally and figuratively. Not only had the warring
tribes, the Hutus and the Tutsis, hacked each other to death with machetes to
the tune of about a million bodies scattered across the countryside, but to this
day many of the survivors of the ethnic cleansing remain totally traumatized by
the slaughter they’d witnessed.
Consequently, much of the populace still
walks around in a daze sporting blank, 1,000 yard stares some refer to as
battle fatigue or shell shock which shrinks refer to clinically as
post-traumatic stress syndrome. For, it is understandable that it might hard to
get over a conflict which pitted neighbor against neighbor, and even relative
against relative.
One survivor, theater director Kiki
Katese, determined to do something to alleviate the suffering, asked, “How do
you rebuild a human being?” So, she founded Ingoma Nshya (meaning “new drum,
new kingdom”), an all-female drumming troupe comprised of
both Tutsis and Hutus, with admission being conditioned on checking ones tribal allegiance at the door.
Besides affording the 60-strong membership an opportunity to pound rhythmically
on congas, the gathering simultaneously served as a support group offering
healing and reconciliation.
In 2010, Kiki came up with another
innovative idea, namely, opening Rwanda’s first ice cream parlor.
This time, she enlisted the support of Jennie Dundas and Alexis Miesen,
proprietors of a place located half a world away in Brooklyn
called Blue Marble Ice Cream.
The game New Yorkers answered the
call, traveling to Rwanda
to help Kiki realize that dream. Together they created Sweet Dreams, a shop
owned and operated cooperatively by a number of the women from Ingoma Nshya.
All of the above is affectionately
recounted in Sweet Dreams, an uplifting documentary co-directed by Lisa and Rob
Fruchtman. Kiki and her companions cut a sharp contrast to the bulk of their
fellow countrymen peppering the desolate background, lost souls who seem broken
in spirit between mourning murdered kin and facing bleak prospects for a better
tomorrow.
A female empowerment flick featuring
a blend of ice cream and drumming as a viable path to rehabilitation and
reconciliation.
Very Good
(3 stars)
Unrated
In English and Kinyarwanda with subtitles
Running time: 84 minutes
Distributor: International
Film Circuit / Liro Films
To see a trailer for Sweet
Dreams, visit:
No comments:
Post a Comment