Hotel Rwanda Page #8

He holds the door open, they file out, frightened. Tatiana is last, he

stops her, steps back in, closes the door.

PAUL (CONT'D)

(in hushed anger)

Is every Tutsi in the neighborhood here?

TATIANA:

They came through the bushes, over the

wall. What could I do?

PAUL:

Send them home. We are not the police.

What do we have to protect them?

TATIANA:

Please. Let them stay 'til morning. The

militia will not come here, they know you

are a Hutu with influence.

PAUL:

They know you are Tutsi!

The door knocks. Paul gets up, angry.

TATIANA:

Please, Paul, 'til first light.

PAUL:

Dawn. Then they go.

Paul opens the door, it's Odette, holding the hand of Paul's eldest

daughter.

ODETTE:

Forgive me, Paul. Danielle says that

Roger has gone.

Tatiana comes over instantly, worried.

TATIANA:

Gone where? Tell me, Danielle.

Their daughter Danielle answers.

DANIELLE:

Next door, mama. He was afraid for his

friend Simon. He went to fetch him.

EXT. UNDERGROWTH. NIGHT

Roger crawls between the shrubs. He hears ANGRY VOICES.

He peers through the long grass.

Sees:
Hutu soldiers boots, feet in sneakers, bare women's feet. And

among them the glint of machetes, hoes, a club spiked with nails, a

length of chain CLANGING on the ground.

EXT. PAUL'S GARDEN. NIGHT

Tatiana rushes out the front door, Paul after her.

Paul catches her and puts his hand over her mouth.

PAUL:

Shhhhh.

SHOUTS next door. Paul pulls Tatiana behind the car. A beat. More

SHOUTS. Paul takes his hand from her mouth. She's sobbing.

EXT. NEIGHBOR'S YARD. NIGHT

Roger crawls to the gap in the shrubs. Feet, a crowd, leaving, through

a gate. Engines rev.

Roger crawls from the bushes.

Crawls across, the driveway, crawls through a puddle.

Then stops, SEES SOMETHING, AN (UNSEEN) HORROR!

EXT. PAUL'S GARDEN. NIGHT

Paul and Tatiana exit the back of the house with flashlight in hand

headed towards the rear gate.

Paul searches along the chain link fence, finds a section loose, he

pulls it back, clambers underneath it.

Tatiana clasps her mouth, afraid to utter a cry.

EXT. UNDERGROWTH. NIGHT

Paul crawls through this scrub tunnel.

Then he hears BRANCHES SNAPPING.

He moves toward the sound.

Discovers Roger, terrified, thrashing in a tangle of bushes.

He grabs Rogers shirt, pulls him as the little boy startles.

PAUL:

Ssshh!

Paul drags his son through the chainlink fence, whisks him up in his

arms and rushes him to the house.

INT. PAUL'S KITCHEN. NIGHT

Paul bursts through the back door and sets Roger down. Tatiana is

beside them.

TATIANA:

Roger!

Paul turns the flashlight on Roger. Tatiana pulls back in horror:

Roger is covered in blood. Her SCREAMS, stifled by fear.

TATIANA (CONT'D)

Oh, my God!

PAUL:

Where are you hurt, son?

Roger stares blankly. Odette is beside them now.

ODETTE:

Get his clothes off.

Hands pull and tear his clothes off. Towels wipe him down. Odette

looks all over his body with the flashlight. Despite the blood Roger

has no injuries.

PAUL:

What happened, son? Where did you get

this blood?

But Roger, trembling, just stares, totally traumatized. Children cry.

ODETTE:

He's not injured.

His paralysis freaks the women in the room. Paul turns angrily to them.

PAUL:

Leave us, give us some space.

He ushers the neighbors out of the room, closes the door.

PAUL (CONT'D)

(to Tatiana)

The neighbors must go at dawn.

Tatiana hugs her son.

EXT. KIGALI. DAWN

The faintest grey of dawn over the city. Then a flock of birds rises as

one in the distance. A millisecond later, the cause of their flight, a

grenade explosion, echoes.

The birds dart, in another direction as the STACCATO of a machine gun

rips the air.

INT. PAUL'S BEDROOM. DAWN

Paul sits on the edge of the bed, staring out the window.

Behind him Tatiana has Roger cradled in her arms, he still trembles

wide eyed as she tries to get him to talk.

TATIANA:

Will you take a little milk?

Nothing.

PAUL:

Let him sleep.

The door knocks. The old guard calls in frightened.

OLD GUARD (O.S.)

Mr. Paul.

PAUL:

(to Tatiana)

It is time for the neighbors to leave.

He heads for the door.

INT. PAUL’S LIVING ROOM. DAWN

Paul steps out, closes the door behind him. A small delegation of the

men wait nervously.

JEAN BAPTISTE:

It is true.

He holds up the tiny radio, tuned to the BBC World service, a crackly

Brit voice. (It's Gloria the reporter.)

GLORIA THE REPORTER (O.S.)

The Hutu president's plane was struck by

a ground-to-air missile as he returned

from signing the peace accord with the

Tutsi rebels. There were no survivors.

The Hutu government has already blamed

the Tutsi rebels. The rebels have denied

the accusation. Already there are reports

of reprisal killings on the streets.

As they listen, a young woman lets out a SQUEAL, and flees the window

where she's been sitting.

WOMEN (O.S.)

They are here.

Hysteria in the room, women and children push toward the bedroom. Paul

manages to make it to the window, nervously steals a glance and sees:

A HUTU ARMY SOLDIER sits on the high wall by the gate. He pulls another

up beside him.

Panic in the room now. Paul turns.

PAUL:

Shut up!

PAUL'S POV:
The soldiers drop into his garden. They draw pistols.

TATIANA (O.S.)

What is it, Paul.

PAUL:

Stay with the children.

PAUL'S POV:
The soldiers go to the gate, slide the bolt, swing it open.

Two jeeps, jammed with heavily armed SOLDIERS, sit in the drive like

many-limbed beasts of war. Paul watches as the jeeps rumble into his

garden. The soldiers jump out.

INSIDE THE ROOM:

Nothing can stop the women and children from fleeing into the bedrooms.

Paul is frozen at the CRASH of rifles on the door.

The door gives, SOLDIERS flood in.

They are startled by the crowd in the living room, rifles raised,

SHOUTS.

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