Communication – Page 2 – Marcquel’s Online Journal

February 2026
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Hotel Rwanda is a dramatic film based on a true story about the tragedy that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. Rwanda’s troubles began when a quarrel between one nation resulted in an act of death because of the colonialists Belgium dividing Rwanda into two groups based upon physical distinctions. In this essay I’m going to explain to you how Terry George(director) uses cinematographic techniques to develop suspense in Paul’s “epiphany” scene. Hotel Rwanda has numerous of significant scenes however this specific one is one of the most unique because of various qualities.

In this scene Paul and Gregoire go to a Hutu camp to visit George for some supplies, at this point in the film the Hutu’s have rapidly decimated the Tuti’s and Paul is still reluctant to believe the truth but is gradually getting scared of reality. When they got there they could see the horror displayed by the Hutu’s actions raping Tutsi women, physically damaging young kids and caging innocent people as if they were viscous animals. They got into a building guarded by armed Hutu men glancing at Paul with a suspicious look while the two passed them. After they got the supplies Paul and George had a short conversation and Georges motives were to eradicate all Tutsi’s soon. Paul replied ” you can not possibly think you can kill all of them?” George then said ” why not? we are already half way there.” After that brief chat they caused tension within themselves as there was a anxious moment of silence. Paul got in the car and told Gregoire that they are going but George tried to bribe Paul with a deal. If he gives them some Hutu’s who discourage the horrific events (in George’s word’s) ” Hutu traitor’s” then George will give Paul some of the imprisoned Tutsi’s (in George’s word’s) “cockroaches”. However Paul casually avoided the question by giving a direct answer simply saying “It’s almost dawn George, we really must be going”. George had a puzzled look on his face that could not be read, he then said ” take the river road back, it’s clear” with a sly grin on his face. They then drove off the direction that was given to them by George.

It was misty and foggy and you can hear birds chirruping and grasshoppers scatted everywhere. Gregoire was driving steadily until some bumps occurred and they began to ram the car on the road. Paul exclaimed ” stop the car, stop the car”, the vehicle was halted in a gloomy area so Paul got out the car to uncover the substance which has interfered their journey back. But suddenly Paul unexpectedly fell on a crowed of dead bodies surrounded everywhere, he swiftly moved away from the pale young Tutsi girl who was beside him. He got up to see the hundreds of others who got assassinated by the flagitious murderous, you could see his shocked reaction standing there looking at the terror upon his nation. He then retched and quickly went back to the car so he can no longer see the tragedy of deaths, he gets in the car and tells Gregoire there leaving. Paul has now realised that when George said ” take the river road back, it’s clear” it was extremely ironic. One reason why it is ironic is because he meant the Hutu’s have cleared that road and the Tutsi’s there are all assassinated there. The other reason is to show Paul the reality of deaths following their disagreement earlier about abolishing all Tutsi’s. George is referring the road of dead bodies to his argument as he said “its clear” he is saying its clear the reality of the present and how he is right about his future predictions “soon we will wipe out all cockroaches”.

The first two techniques I will be talking about is camera shots and camera angles. A camera shot is the amount of space that is seen in one shot or frame and the camera angle marks the specific location at which the movie camera or video camera is placed to take a shot. Terry George includes camera shots to create suspense in Paul’s “epiphany” scene by concentrating on particular moments of the scene. This builds tension for different reasons in different shots, for example when Paul stood up after falling out of the car we could only see his reaction, the mid-shot helped to develop uncertainty as you got to see all of his response and body language. Another is when the car was driving back to the hotel from the Hutu camp, the long shot generates suspense as it gives you a view of not only the main focus at that time (the car) but also the surroundings of it. In the long shot you can see the vehicle is deserted, this is uncanny as there on a big road so you would think it wouldn’t be so isolated. One more camera shot would be “over the solder”, this is shown when Paul and Gregoire are driving back with a blurry mist. This event on its own creates suspense by not knowing what’s ahead of them, furthermore they are rapidly colliding into a unknown substance. The “over the solder” shot let’s us look in their perspective, to see what they see, to feel how feel, in this case we don’t see anything and it makes us feel anxious as if we are there with them.

Camera angles develops tension in this scene by making us feel like we are in their presence of the film similar to the effect of a camera shot. One example is the “level angle” which is demonstrated when Paul stops the car after Gregoire was driving unsteadily, Paul then got out of the vehicle but theatrically fell on the dead bodies. However the camera angle was still level even though Paul fell down, when the norm would be to follow the characters every movements and actions. This made us feel like we were in the moment and part of the film as if we would see someone fall in front of us, our natural reactions would look in front of us and not follow all of his manoeuvres. This builds suspense by making us be in the moment and to be in the scene, this makes us feel anxious by being in the scenario and not knowing what’s ahead.

Another two techniques are music and sound which have a profound impact on the scene but is not recognised for its significant quality. The music effects the scene by setting the mood and tone of what’s going on in Paul’s epiphany, one example is when Paul fell out of the car and slightly panicked. At that point of silence throughout the scene the tone instantly dropped and there was a mysterious sound while the event was continuing. This created suspense as the music was soft but enigmatic so we were curious and almost nervous, that sudden moment made the film come alive by causing the viewers to feel anxious. Sound has a huge impact on Paul’s epiphany for similar reasons to music but they deliver different qualities. One example of sound in the scene is also when Paul fell out of the car and slightly panicked once he saw the dead girl beneath him. This built suspense as at that point there were machete sounds which caused that tense feeling and made us curious of what the near future lies ahead. The machetes represented the killings from the Hutu’s and deaths of the loaded piles of Tutsi bodies. Another example is when they were driving back and there were cricket noises randomly occurring. This showed the setting that it was at night and that it was quite; everyone knows silence always creates tension. Both of these elements cause deep tension with subtle master manipulation skills bringing uncertainty in our brains.

Finally, Setting and filters are another key contribution towards the epiphany scene. Setting is one technique which builds suspense by creating a scene in a mysterious and unknown place. Filters create tension as well as it manipulates the lighting of the scene. It also can indicate an unclear part of a film and resolve it. Setting has built tension in the epiphany scene when Paul and Gregoire was driving on the long river road in isolation. This developed tension as they were by themselves in a deserted area with no security which made us viewers anxious and weary of the potential dangers near us. This is a clever use of directing as this exploits our minds.

Filters is the final technique i will be talking about i this incisive essay. Filters has caused suspense in the epiphany scene when Paul got out of the car and stood up after his fanatic drop, this is because there was a gloomy mysterious lighting on the scene. This was effecting the blurry vision of mist and created tension within us. Another example is when Paul was staring at the hundreds of dead bodies scatted of the floor in front of him. In this part of the scene the lighting kept on changing by getting lighter each time, this represented that the reality of the situation is getting clearer for Paul psychologically. In conclusion Terry George has frequently applied numerous of significant techniques to develop suspense in Paul’s “epiphany” scene. This essay has now shown how Terry George has recreated a true story and on the way made us feel part of it.