The Day God Walked Away is ''a'' 2009 Franco-Belgian drama film on the fate of women in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It was directed by

Philippe Van Leeuw Philippe Van Leeuw is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. He made his feature-length debut in 2009 with ''The Day God Walked Away''. In 2017, he wrote and directed ''Insyriated'', which premiered at the 67th Berlin Internati ...

Plot

Jacqueline is a domestic worker from the

Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic ...

minority working for a Belgian family in Rwanda. Since the family is being evacuated by the UN, the only place they can hide is in the attic. The entire house is looted while acts of violence against the Tutsis can be heard outside. Jacqueline risks her life while she manages to escape. Arriving in her own house, she finds her two children murdered. She flees to take refuge in the jungle. On the riverbank she finds a wounded man. She cleans his wounds and gives him water, and they make food together. Jacqueline is seen by a group of men in the woods. She saves herself by getting into a pond, but a young man is waiting on the bank to kill her. Her assailant is killed by the wounded man and he rescues Jacqueline from the pool. The wounded man tries to build a shelter in the jungle but Jacqueline destroys it, and runs to the village where she collapses.

Cast

* Ruth Nirere Shanel as Jacqueline * Afazali Dewaele as wounded man

Awards

* New Directors Award –

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; es, Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, eu, Donostia Zinemaldia) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in ...

. * Grand Prize –

Bratislava International Film Festival The Bratislava International Film Festival (also known as Bratislava IFF) is an international film festival established in 1999 and held annually in Bratislava, Slovakia. Apart from the international competition programme, it also regularly feature ...

, 2009. * Best Actress Award for Ruth Nirere Shanel – Bratislava International Film Festival, 2009. * Best Actress Award for Ruth Nirere Shanel – Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 2009. * Discovery Prize – Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur, 2009. * FACE Prize (European Union Human Rights Award) – Istanbul IFF 2010. * Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress for Ruth Nirere Shanel – Nairobi KIFF 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Day God Walked Away 2009 films Rwandan genocide films