The outrage occurred in 1994 when members of the Hutu tribe in Rwanda carried out a 100-day campaign of annihilation against members of the Tutsi tribe and massacred one million people. It may be indicative of the West’s politically enfeebled response to this when, near the end of the film, an official is interviewed on radio and is clumsily reluctant to use the word, “genocide” in describing the bloodbath.

Hotel Rwanda personalises the shameful event by centring on a single story – that of a man called Paul Rusesabagina, played by Don Cheadle who has been rightfully lauded for his superbly understated, emotionally controlled performance. Paul, a Hutu married to a Tutsi, Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo), is manager of the classy, Belgium-owned Hotel Des Milles Collines located in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali.

When the Hutu uprising erupts – incited by messages of hate broadcast through a radio station, Paul attempts to maintain calm and a suggestion of normalcy by continuing to run the hotel as usual. It is the smooth business skills he has learned as a manager that allows him and his family to survive. These involve accumulating favours with those who may be able to help like a Hutu general (Fana Mokoena) or bribing them with alcohol, money or expensive cigars. At first concerned only for his family, Paul soon finds himself sheltering many refugees in the hotel, finally becoming the saviour of more than a thousand friends, relatives and strangers – all of whom survived.

As the slaughter worsens, the people are abandoned and left to their plight when the white population is forced to leave. Paul has always believed that help will come - especially when the world sees the shocking footage taken by an American cameraman, Jack (Joaquin Phoenix). His hopes are destroyed when UN officer, Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte) tells him that the United Nations will be sending in no more aid.

The survival of Paul and his refugees becomes more and more unlikely and several times they are seconds from death. Only Paul’s calm and quick thinking wins them a reprieve, but with his supplies of alcohol dwindling, his bargaining powers decrease with each day. Even as he fears for his and his family’s lives, however, his efforts to save the people who have come into his care are strengthened.