Notre Dame Du Nil

Rwanda, 1973. The prestigious Catholic boarding school Notre-Dame du Nil is perched high on a hill at the source of the Nile. In this girls’ school, led by a Belgian sister congregation, the future elite of the country is groomed. The girls share the same dreams and doubts. But even in this secluded community ethnic tension manifests. The film shows how little is needed to make a little spark grow into an inferno. This impressive filmed drama combines through poetic imagery, the political reality with the spiritual culture, Christian morals, and traditional rituals. You can quickly feel the buried tension. You also see the mechanisms of ethnical tension in which some of the young girls get caught up in, but which started from imposed quota, that led to, as we can see after the final frame of the film, the ethnic cleansing that ended in genocide 20 years later with over a million left dead. The girls, often non-professionals, act very well. The soundtrack is unique, since it surprises you with jazzy music. The film follows the tradition of Hotel Rwanda and other films concerning genocide. The story leaves such a deep impression and is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Scholastique Mukasonga.