After stealing a machete from a market in Kigali, Munyurangabo and his friend, Sangwa, leave the city on a journey tied to their pasts. Munyurangabo wants justice for his parents who were killed in the Rwandan genocide, and Sangwa wants to visit the home he deserted years ago. Their friendship, however, is tested when Sangwa’s parents disapprove of Munyurangabo, warning that “Hutus and Tutsis are supposed to be enemies.”

This acclaimed debut feature from Lee Isaac Chung, the Oscar-nominated writer/director of MINARI, was filmed in 2006 as a project for a class of fifteen Rwandan film students which utilized local street kids and at-risk youths as the cast and crew of the production. Praised by Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times as “one of those miracles that can illuminate the cinema… a beautiful and powerful film,” MUNYURANGABO went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Film Festival.

DIRECTED BY LEE ISAAC CHUNG
RWANDA | 2007 | KINYARWANDA WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES