THE PARDON Feature Film Project (90 Minutes)

As a Rwandan filmmaker, I want to use my vision and my creative approach to tell a moving story about reconciliation and forgiveness after the Tutsi Genocide, in which an estimated 1milion people were killed within 100 days in spring 1994.

THE PARDON is very different from other movies made about the genocide because it tells the story through the Rwandan eyes - it is the first feature film on the topic written and directed by a survivor, this will help the whole world better understand what happened, so others can learn from our history.  My way of telling this story is intimate rather than epic. I use the central relationship of the film the friendship and tragic separation of the two main characters to tell the larger story of the Tutsi Genocide, but also to explore a universal topic of friendship and an individual in the turmoil of history.  I am a survivor myself, which helps me to show what happened in the past, but also what is happening today: how we understand and retell history, how we deal with it in our present. 

The script development process was supported by the Goteborg Film Festival, Maisha Film Lab and Columbia University.  THE PARDON was filmed in Uganda in June 2011 by the support of Goteborg Film Festival and Mira Nairs Maisha Film Lab supported the production with equipment and logistics.

Currently I am looking for funding to finish well the post-production of the film, you can be part of this project by supporting this project where more people will learn from what happened in Tutsis Genocide and what is happening today and you name will be on credit as supporters by receiving a special thanks from the Director, Co-producer credit, Contributing Producer, Associate Producer and more

SYNOPSIS:
In 1994 the fastest genocide in the history of the humankind took place in a small East African nation of Rwanda: almost one million Tutsis were killed. THE PARDON tells a story of two once best friends, MANZI and KAREMERA, who become divided along the political and tribal lines by the conflict. After joining the extremist Hutu militia MANZI kills KAREMERA's family. Fifteen years later, among the countrywide efforts for reconciliation, KAREMERA finds himself unable to forgive MANZI for his crimes and tries to find evidence which could implicate MANZI in the planning of the Tutsi genocide. Is true reconciliation possible? What price are we willing to pay for peace? This is a story about overcoming loss and the long windy road to forgiveness."