Is 'Hotel Rwanda' based on true story? Find out details about Don Cheadle starrer

Hotel Rwanda is a 2004 drama film directed by Terry George. It stars Don Cheadle as real-life hotelier Paul Rusesabagina and Sophie Okonedo as his wife Tatiana. The film is based on true events of the Rwandan genocide which occurred during the spring of 1994. The film follows Rusesabagina's heroic efforts to save the lives of his family and more than 1,000 other refugees by providing them with shelter in the besieged Hôtel des Mille Collines.

The film became a moderate success and garnered critical acclaim especially for the performances of Cheadle and Okonedo, both of who were nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively for the film. Read to find out if Hotel Rwanda based on a true story and more about the film's plot here.

More about Hotel Rwanda's true story

Hotel Rwanda is based on a true story documenting the real-life hotelier Paul Rusesabagina and his efforts to save both Tutsi and Hutu Rwandan refugees in the Belgian-owned Hôtel des Mille Collines. The events took place amidst the horrific Rwandan Genocide where Hutu terrorists killed about 800,000 people mostly of Tutsi descent. Hotel Rwanda plot follows how Mr Rusesabagina (Cheadle), a middle-class Hutu married to a Tutsi woman(Okonedo), used his influence - and bribes - to convince military officials to secure a safe escape for an estimated 1,200 people who sought shelter at the Mille Collines Hotel in Kigali. Following the carnage, Rusesabagina survived along with his wife, four children, two adopted nieces; as well as most of the refugees he sheltered.

Differences between film's depiction of events versus actual events

While the film takes on the angle of how Paul Rusesabagina becomes a hero due to his efforts of saving thousands of lives, over the years the hotelier has been gripped in controversy, especially with reports claiming he used to "extort money" from the refugees for necessities like food water and other facilities. It was also reported that the UN headquarters in Kigali received information that Rusesabagina had provided a Rwandan army commander with a list of hotel guests and their room numbers.

As narrated in the book Inside the Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story ... and Why It Matters Today, the film had many inaccuracies, as the same refugees whom Rusesabagina shielded from the extremist groups claimed that he was a profiteering and politically ambitious "Hutu power sympathiser" who extorted money from those who sought refuge, threatening to send those who did not pay to the génocide causers, despite pleas from the hotel’s corporate ownership to stop. A refugee survivor named Edouard Kayihura told his own story through the book.

Promo Image Source: A still from Hotel Rwanda (2004)