Rwandan genocide is focus for Holocaust Day

This year the Lauriston Jesuit Centre in Edinburgh is once again marking Holocaust Memorial Day by way of a joint project with St Thomas of Aquin's school in Edinburgh.

Last year in the school we had a very moving evening focussed on Auschwitz, with testimonials from pupils who had visited, followed by a screening of 'God on Trial'.  That was followed by a question and answer session with Frank Cottrell Boyce, the screenwriter of the film.

Says the Director of the Lauriston Centre, Fr Chris Boles SJ: 'Our focus for this year's Holocaust Memorial Day will be Rwanda, and the horrific genocide that took place there in 1994.  We will once again centre our evening around a film, 'Shooting Dogs' (cert 15), to be followed by a short presentation from Jackie Calder, founder of the Edinburgh based charity 'Wish For Rwanda', who will tell us about the situation in present day Rwanda, the signs of hope that are there, and the reasons for optimism that now exist.'

'Shooting Dogs' is a most appropriate film to show on Holocaust Memorial Day, especially in the context of Christian faith, and taking place, as it does, in a school.  The film stars John Hurt, who plays Fr Christopher, director of the École Technique Officielle in Kigali, and who forges a friendship with Joe (Hugh Dancy), a young gap-year teacher.  Together they have to confront the limits of their courage as they decide whether to stay or leave in the face of the brutal violence.  In the film we see the impotence and ineffectiveness of the UN peacekeepers, who get permission to shoot the dogs which are eating corpses but are not allowed to fire to protect human lives.  We see in a powerful way the story of the ordinary people of Rwanda caught up in the terror.  And through it all we encounter the strains placed on faith and hope, and the extraordinary courage and love that overcomes fear.

'Shooting Dogs' was filmed on location in the very school in Rwanda where the genocide took place, and most of the cast are local survivors of the genocide.

'It is a powerful film, from Scottish Director Michael Caton-Jones;' says Fr Boles. 'And it is an important reminder that Holocaust Memorial Day has a relevance beyond even the horror of the Nazi death camps.'

The evening will be held in the main hall of St Thomas of Aquin's school, 2-20 Chalmers Street, on Thursday 27 January, and begins at 7.00 p.m..  Admission is free and all who are over 15 years of age are most welcome.  Donations on the night to assist the work of 'Wish for Rwanda' and the 'Lauriston Jesuit Centre' will be most welcome.

For more information on the evening, and to find out more about the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the charity 'Wish For Rwanda', follow the links to the various websites, including a review of the film 'Shooting dogs', on the Film4 page.

Finally, if you have the chance to display the attached poster (link above) in your church, staffroom, local café, etc, the organisers of the evening would be most grateful.


 Lauriston Jesuit Centre

 Wish for Rwanda

 Shooting Dogs review