Paul Rusesabagina

Ruandan presidentti sai surmansa attentaatissa 6. huhtikuuta 1994, mikä johti lopulta ennennäkemättömään sisällissotaan. Noin 100 päivää kestäneen kansanmurhan aikana tapettiin yli 800 000 ruandalaista. Kun kapinalliset tunkeutuivat pääkaupunkiin Kigaliin heinäkuun alussa, Paul Rusesabagina avasi hotellinsa ovet ja pelasti 1 268 viatonta ihmishenkeä varmalta kuolemalta. Hotellinjohtaja on omaelämäkerta ja humaani tositarina, joka luo valoa maailman synkkien tapahtumien keskellä. Kuten Thomas Keneallyn Schindlerin lista tai Nelson Mandelan Pitkä tie vapauteen, Hotellinjohtaja on kertomus yhden miehen uskomattomasta taistelusta ja rohkeudesta mielettömyyden keskellä.

'I still don't understand why those men in the militias didn't just put a bullet in my head and execute every last person in the rooms upstairs but they didn't. I survived to tell the story, along with those I sheltered. There was nothing particularly heroic about it...' Paul Rusesabagina was an ordinary man - a quiet manager of a luxury hotel in Rwanda. But on 6 April 1994 mobs with machetes turned into cold-blooded murderers, and commenced a slaughter of 800,000 civilians in just 100 days. Rusesabagina, with incredible courage, saved the lives of 1,200 people. In this powerfully moving autobiography Rusesabagina tells his story and explores the complexity of Rwanda's history and the insanity that turned neighbours and friends into killers.

The remarkable autobiography of the globally-recognized human rights champion whose heroism inspired the film Hotel Rwanda "Fascinating...your book is called An Ordinary Man, yet you took on an extraordinary feat with courage, determination, and diplomacy." - Oprah, O, The Oprah Magazine As Rwanda was thrown into chaos during the 1994 genocide, Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, turned the luxurious Hotel Milles Collines into a refuge for more than 1,200 Tutsi and moderate Hutu refugees, while fending off their would-be killers with a combination of diplomacy and deception. In An Ordinary Man, he tells the story of his childhood, retraces his accidental path to heroism, revisits the 100 days in which he was the only thing standing between his "guests" and a hideous death, and recounts his subsequent life as a refugee and activist.

In February, 2003, the Sudanese Liberation Army in Darfur (the western region of Sudan) after years of oppression took up arms against the Sudanese government. The government and allied militias answered the rebellion with mass murder, rape and the wholesale destruction of villages and livelihood, resulting in one of the world's largest humanitarian and political crises. Up to 2 million people were displaced 400,000 people killed. In October and November, 2004, after watching woefully inadequate media coverage on the crisis in Darfur, a team of three independent filmmakers trekked to Darfurian refugee camps in eastern Chad and crept across the border into Darfur. They met dozens of Darfurians, and spoke with them about their history, hopes and fears, and the tragedy they are living. Refugees and displaced peoples, civilians and fighters resisting the Sudanese government, teachers, students, parents, children and community leaders provide the heart of Darfur Diaries. Their stories and testimonies, woven together through the personal experience of the filmmakers, and conveyed with political and historical context, provide a much-needed account to help understand Darfur. These are people whose lives, homes, safety and rights deserve to be protected as vigilantly as those of peoples all over the world.