A Catholic Priest and an English teacher get stranded in a school in Kigali during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.A Catholic Priest and an English teacher get stranded in a school in Kigali during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.A Catholic Priest and an English teacher get stranded in a school in Kigali during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 1 win & 3 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe characters are fictional, but the events are not. Parts of this movie were shot at Ecole Technique Officielle (E.T.O.), a high school in Kigali, where the actual events took place. The title of this movie comes from the fact that U.N. peacekeepers used to shoot local dogs that fed on the decomposing bodies of the genocide victims.
- GoofsThroughout the movie, the Belgian Captain wears the insignia of a Sergeant (three white lines).
- Quotes
Joe Connor: Why are you doing this?
Christopher: You asked me, Joe, where is God in everything that is happening here, in all the suffering? I know exactly where he is. He's right here. With these people. Suffering. His love is here. More intense and profound than I have ever felt. And my heart is here, Joe. My soul. And if I leave I think I may not find it again.
- Crazy creditsBefore the credits we are shown photographs of Rwanda genocide survivors who served as on set crew members. Next to each picture is text stating how many loved ones they lost.
- Alternate versionsA "clean language version" of the film was released on DVD in 2007.
- SoundtracksNyirigira
Featured review
Extraordinary and incredibly moving
I watch upwards of 300 movies a year and use IMDb like a fiend, but only this movie has ever compelled me to register and comment. "Shooting Dogs" is a BBC Films/UK Film Council film about the genocide in Rwanda that was ignored whilst the international community pontificated about the language used to describe what was going on (i.e. "Acts of genocide" vs "genocide"). The film focuses on the desperate plight of 2500 Tutsis seeking shelter in a school-cum-UN military compound. It goes some way to explain the history of the situation and the events surrcounding the genocide.
What makes this movie special is that a number of the production crew are survivors of the Rwandan crisis, and are telling their own stories. As macho as i would love to sound, i had tears in my eyes and felt the pain, hopelessness and indignation - and those are things that no director can claim to have brought to life for me in anything i've watched until now (the closest was probably the magnificent "Mysterious Skin"). Nothing is held back, and not should it be. The horror here is not graphic close-ups, but the shocking disregard for life that leads to the slaughter of newborn babies with machetes, the abject impotence of the UN and how tribal loyalties can turn the closest of friends into murderers.
For those who have lived in Africa (as i have), what is portrayed here is all too real. Like is said by one BBC reporter in the movie, in the Balkans the people were white and they could have been your own mother, but in Rwanda its worse than numbness - its just another dead African. Ignore your preconceptions, assumptions and instant reaction to skip to the next title because its not familiar, it wasn't in the cinema and Hotel Rwanda didn't appeal to you much. The impact this movie had on me was that profound, and i'd urge anyone to watch it to understand what happened there.
And when the credits come up and you've had time to think it over and resolve that it should never happen again, i'd say one word to you: Darfur. It just happened again only recently.
What makes this movie special is that a number of the production crew are survivors of the Rwandan crisis, and are telling their own stories. As macho as i would love to sound, i had tears in my eyes and felt the pain, hopelessness and indignation - and those are things that no director can claim to have brought to life for me in anything i've watched until now (the closest was probably the magnificent "Mysterious Skin"). Nothing is held back, and not should it be. The horror here is not graphic close-ups, but the shocking disregard for life that leads to the slaughter of newborn babies with machetes, the abject impotence of the UN and how tribal loyalties can turn the closest of friends into murderers.
For those who have lived in Africa (as i have), what is portrayed here is all too real. Like is said by one BBC reporter in the movie, in the Balkans the people were white and they could have been your own mother, but in Rwanda its worse than numbness - its just another dead African. Ignore your preconceptions, assumptions and instant reaction to skip to the next title because its not familiar, it wasn't in the cinema and Hotel Rwanda didn't appeal to you much. The impact this movie had on me was that profound, and i'd urge anyone to watch it to understand what happened there.
And when the credits come up and you've had time to think it over and resolve that it should never happen again, i'd say one word to you: Darfur. It just happened again only recently.
helpful•1008
- azcoppen
- Jan 13, 2006
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $108,281
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $36,412
- Nov 7, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $558,588
- Runtime1 hour 55 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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