DVD Review: Beyond the Gates

By Frankie Dees Sep 19, 2007, 13:00 GMT

Based on true events during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, an exhausted Catholic priest (John Hurt) and a young idealistic English teacher (Hugh Dancy) find themselves caught in a literal and spiritual crisis. They have to choose whether to stay with the thousands of Tutsis about to be massacred or to flee for safety. ...more

The ravages of the Rwandan genocide get another well-intentioned pic following quickly on the footsteps of ‘Hotel Rwanda’, but unlike that film, this distinctly African subject gets filtered through the eyes of honorable white protagonists – one of whom is a priest no less.

In many ways, ‘Beyond the Gates’ is a superior film to ‘Hotel Rwanda’, more authentic in the direct dealings of the subject matter and characters that display brutal honesty in key moments – when the hammer drops, there is no ‘Schindler’s List’-like heroics here from a key player whose actions are probably more similar to what any of us would do, whether we would admit to it or not.

From director Michael Caton-Jones, a filmmaker I’ve been a fan of since his fabulous ‘Rob Roy’ with Neeson as the titular character, he fashions a more steady and stylish hand over the horrific proceedings than does Terry George with ‘Hotel Rwanda’ who displays much more skill as a writer than a director. That Caton-Jones followed this film with ‘Basic Instinct 2’ is an interesting and very sad fact.

The biggest problem with ‘Beyond the Gates’ is the unsurprising inclusion of having our hands held through the narrative by two seemingly relatable white people. Like recent films ‘The Last King of Scotland’ and ‘Blood Diamond’, apparently we won’t be able to relate to the stories unless we have (let’s face it – arbitrary) white people to let us know what to think. That McAvoy, DiCaprio and John Hurt all display great talent in the roles is almost beside the point.

That being said, this was apparently a cathartic exercise for co-writer David Belton, who was a BBC cameraman on location in Rwanda in 94 and who wasted no time in getting out of the country when violence erupted. Guilt can be a powerful foundation for a pic and it’s obvious that David was excising some of these demons through the screenplay.

The main structure of the film is quite close to ‘Hotel Rwanda’. Instead of the Hotel des Mille Collines that ended up providing a makeshift shelter for thousands of refugees, ‘Beyond the Gates’ looks at the Ecole Technique Officielle, the ETO, a missionary-planted school in the capital city of Kigali that’s run by the appropriately kind Father Christopher (John Hurt), who has come quite close to a new young teacher, Englishman Joe Conner (Hugh Dancy).

With the ETO also providing a base camp for Belgian UN ‘peacekeepers’, the school remains a pinnacle of relative safety for the young students made up of Rwanda’s two factions, the Hutu and Tutsi. Joe, quite happy and energetic to be helping out, has yet to pick up on the gestating tension between the two factions.

These early scenes develop a light tone for the most part and even contain a few laughs, although a heavy tone soon hits as Joe becomes enlightened to the tension. A rapport is clearly seen between Joe and a Tutsi student, Marie (Claire-Hope Ashitey) and as she is pelted by rocks from young Hutu’s, something seems to click – a war is about to erupt that he can’t begin to understand.

Soon, the event that sets the civil war in motion occurs, and chaos ensues. Thousands of refugee’s, mostly Tutsi and some non-extremist Hutus, rush through the gates of the school for protection. The U.N. peacekeepers stand fast to their mandate to shoot only in defense and not get involved in the massacre happening outside the gates but as long as the U.N. are posted at the gates of the school, the refugee’s remain safe.

This section of the pic looks mostly at the do-gooder antics of Joe and Father Christopher as they chance the violence outside the gates to check on or rescue various acquaintances – scenes which are admittedly gripping and manipulative at the same time. More interesting is Father Christopher’s resolute acceptance of the horrors outside the gate which he meets with an unfaltering spirituality.

With the harrowing climatic actions of the U.N. withdrawing from the school set in action, essentially leaving 2.500 refugees including children to be hacked to death by machetes, Father Christopher performs a final Mass to make sure that each child receives a communion – an impossibly dramatic scene.

John Hurt, with his weathered face and soothing voice adds a necessary gravitas to the character - Dancy, however, proves slightly less interesting providing no more than the requisite amount of facial expressions that comprise mostly reaction shots - competent, certainly, but little to no shading. It’s important to note that no Africans with the exception of Marie is given much of a personality or anything even remotely requiring character development.

The film is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. Special Features include an audio commentary by director Michael Caton-Jones, a second commentary by Writer David Wolstencroft and Producer David Belton, a Making of that includes the standard interview and behind the scene elements, an International Rescue Committee advertisement ‘Ways to Get Involved’ and the films Trailer.

It’s impossible to deny the power of some of these sequences despite my wish that Father Christopher was more of a peripheral character with Joe being easily expendable altogether but the film remains a well-shot, sporadically powerful look at a subject matter that will never run out of having a deserving audience.

Beyond the Gates is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.