Available to Watch May 15 at 11:00 AM - May 23 11:59 PM | Access to MSPIFF39 Redefined is geo-restricted to viewers in Minnesota and a MN billing address is required to purchase a ticket.
This coming-of-age tale of Rwandan schoolgirls at a Belgian-run Catholic boarding school points to the subtle ways grievances and prejudices can lead to full-scale genocide in later generations.
In 1973, upscale Rwandan girls attend Notre-Dame du Nil, a Belgian-run Catholic boarding school. Most of the young women are from elite Hutu families, who chafe at the school’s decision to allow more Tutsi students than normal. Based on the acclaimed novel by Scholastique Mukasonga (who lost literally dozens of family members in the Rwandan genocide), directed by award-winning filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, and with a cast of mostly non-professional actors, Our Lady of the Nile is a hypnotic and ultimately terrifying examination of the roots of evil. “Frightening, sometimes confusing but strangely captivating, this is an unusual history lesson shot with verve and laced with violence.” --Screen Daily
Director Biography
Atiq Rahimi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and fled with his family after the Soviet invasion in the early 1980s. He is the director of Earth and Ashes (2004) and The Patience Stone (2012). Our Lady of the Nile is his third feature film.
Press
"[T]he film's heart lies in the wide-eyed wonder of adolescence, so compellingly depicted by the first-time actors." - Toronto Globe and Mail
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