Paul Rutaganda

Paul Rutaganda was an innovator who stood up against ethnic prejudic In the Rwandan civil war between the Hutus and tootsies. We see Paul use his reputation, charismatic charm, and influential power to save the lives of almost a thousand people during the genocide perpetrated by the Hutu.

To fully understand the events of hotel Rwanda you must first understand the political situation and background of the Rwandan civil war. Rwanda was claimed as a colony for Belgium in 1916 When the Belgians were granted control of Rwanda they immediately took the role of powerful rulers separating the Rwandan people into two groups, the tootsie were considered to be taller, fair in completion, and elegant. Where as the Hutus were less physical satisfactory

In the start of the movie Paul is working at a very prestigious hotel. Paul, a Hutu, is married to a tootsie women named Tatiana and they have several children. However after the Hutu president is killed negotiating a peace agreement with the tootsie rebels, possibly by his own Hutu generals, the Hutus go from a crowd to a mob mentality and start the mass genocide of the tootsie civilians. Paul, knowing his wife and children would be murdered because they were tootsie, begins to use influential powers and charismatic charm to save his family and as many people as he can. The hotel where Paul works becomes a total institution for the Rutaganda family and other tootsie

The Hutu military is leading the way in the genocide. However Paul knows one of the highest generals several times we see Paul use his charismatic authority to convince the general to help him. At one point the general displayed coercive power threatening to kill Paul, because he is insistent on returning to the hotel despite tootsie rebels starting to over run the area. Paul shows no fear in coercing the general to aid him again by threatening to tell the U.N of the generals war crimes and telling him that if he were to kill Paul there would be no one to tell of how the general helped fight the murder of innocent civilians.

We see the role exit from a simple hotel manager to a sort of politician combined with a savior, but we also see the extreme role conflict as Paul struggles to keep the hotel running, be a father and husband, and save as many people as he can. A prominent example of this is when Paul doesn't get on the evacuation truck. In this act Paul believes he is sending his family to safety as he stays in the hotel trying to save those left