The Day God Walked Away

The Day God Walked Away (2009)

Genres - Drama  |   Run Time - 100 min.  |   Countries - France  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Mark Deming

A woman finds herself trapped in the midst of a brutal civil war with no way out in this drama inspired by actual events. Tensions between Tutsis and Hutus, the two principal ethnic groups in Rwanda, had been simmering for years when they finally exploded in the spring of 1994; the nation's president, Juvenal Habyarimana, was a Hutu who died after his plane was attacked with rockets during a landing, and when word spread that a group of radical Tutsis were responsible, Hutus went on a rampage, as 800,000 Rwandans (mostly Tutsis) were massacred within four months. Jacqueline (Ruth Nirere) was a young Tutsi woman who worked for a family of Belgian émigrés in Kigali. She was in their home when the fighting first broke out, and as roving bands of Hutus made their way into the neighborhood, the family fled and Jacqueline was forced to take shelter in the attic. As waves of bloody violence swept through Kigali and the rest of Rwanda, Jacqueline was trapped in the attic as she watched civilization break down into madness when she dared to look out the window for the next 100 days. Le Jour Ou Dieu Est Parti En Voyage (aka The Day God Walked Away) was the first feature film from director Philippe van Leeuw.