IMDB.com, Here I come

A few weeks ago my roommate Nichola received an email looking for white guys in Kigali who would be willing to dress up as Belgian UN soldiers for a movie about the genocide. It sounded like fun, so I told him to count me in. I met the director a week later and he said that as long as I was willing to let them cut my hair, they'd be glad to use me in the film. Nothing wrong with a free haircut.

The movie is being produced by a Belgian company, and the director is French. The story is about a woman who is working as a nanny for a Belgian family in Kigali. When the genocide starts, the family evacuates from the country, and the movie then follows the story of the nanny as she flees Kigali and tries to survive. The soldiers show up to help the family evacuate the house and then drive them away to safety.

The film set was a house in a neigborhood called Kiyovu, which is close to the city center. After we arrived and got into costume, the director assigned us to various spots on the street, which we were supposed to be guarding from the interhamwe militia while the family exited the house. Initially the director placed me in the back, facing away from the center of the action. The scene called for a militia member to threaten the family with a gun as they exit the gate and get into the convoy of waiting vehicles. One of the soldiers was then supposed to aim his weapon at the guy. Apparently the director didn't like the way the first looked when he held up his gun. He told me to try it, decided I could get the job done, and moved me into the other guy's spot. This meant that I was in the middle of the whole shot, and meant that I actually got to move around a bit. Way more fun than just standing around.

After we filmed the scene with the militia member (who was only a teenager), we filmed the convoy of cars leaving the house. I had to sit in the back of a pickup truck and keep my eye on the kid who had been pointing his gun at the family. Residential roads here are really awful, so when the truck took off and starting rattling over potholes and rocks, I came really close to falling out! But since they weren't about to offer me a stunt double, I held on a little tighter for the next few takes, and managed to make it through without serious injury.

All in all, I had a great time pretending like I was a real actor for a day. Here's me with my most convincing soldier face. There are a few other shots in the photo album.