Celluloid Reality

Rwandan cinema is coming of age, with a new wave of artistes and filmmakers bent on reiterating the country's indomitable creative spirit and putting its movies on the international map.

- Ridhima Shukla

The first feature film to ever come out of Rwanda was in 2001 titled 100 Days, a love story set against the backdrop of the brutal genocide against the Tutsi of 1994 directed by British filmmaker Nick Hughes.

In the years since, there have been more movies made in the tiny East African nation, although this has been a journey of risk and resilience in nabbing the top honors on the big screen .

Still busy building itself from scratch since the horrific events of 1994 that saw almost a million dead, as also building the capacity and infrastructure for large-scale movie production in tandem with other development projects, Rwanda had not had a prevailing cinema culture in general.

Mazimpaka Jones Kennedy, a veteran of the African film industry, says to FORBES AFRICA: “Rwandans did not have the culture of buying a ticket and going to the cinema, but things are changing. There is so much talent in the country and everyone loves films; we have come a long way!”

With the spurt of growth and development in Rwanda, the nation’s artistes and creatives are exploring the myriad possibilities of expressing themselves through cinema and storytelling. 

The creative sector has changed its narrative and today, Rwandans are being recognized for their work in international projects; their faces are on big budget films and their names are being played up across Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming platforms.

But this story began with the pioneers in the early 2000s.

In 2004, Eric Kabera, a name synonymous with the Rwandan film industry, established the Rwanda Cinema Centre for training local talent and providing a launchpad for future filmmakers. He is focused on telling a new tale of hope and resilience in Africa.