From Arusha to Arusha (2008)

To return to Rwanda, less to hear horror stories, than to listen to the subsequent words, to hear the words of justice, to try to go back to the sources of this massacre with a million victims. On the one hand, clips from the archives of the trail of the International Penal Tribune for Rwanda (TIPR), set up in Arusha, in Tanzania since 1994. Diverse accused persons involved in the genocide are heard here. Théoneste Bagosara, for example, retired colonel from the Armed Rwandan Forces and supposed mastermind of the genocide, whose defense lasted twelve years after his arrest. Or Georges Ruggiu, the ex-Belgian teacher lost in Kigali, zealous propagandist of the massacre heard over the radio station, Free Radio Television station of Mille Collines. Judges and lawyers debate the charges, the idea that it was all planned, responsibilities, while the prosecutor explains his difficulties in conducting his inquiry. The diplomatic and political ins and outs of yesterday as well as of today become clear here. On the other hand, away from the court rooms, other witnesses and other actors of the tragedy, guilty persons, or victims at home, review the facts and their implications, and their helplessness. In this exemplary way, a couple where the husband, Hutu, took part in the wrongdoings, is married to a Tutsi, whom he managed by the skin of his teeth to save. It is not a question of opposing two forms of justice, Christophe Gargot denies himself all over-simplification, but completes a highly rhetorical, political exercise by a less strategic approach, one that is more powerless and more exposed. It is the approach of those who continue to live under the daily weight of this drama.