Producer and director Gilbert Ndahayo came to NIU Monday to present “Behind This Convent,” a documentary about the Tutsi genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994.

Anne Birberick, the chair of foreign language and literature, and Greg Ross, the coordinator for foreign languages in the residential program, coordinated the event. They felt Ndahayo’s story would have special meaning to NIU because of the Feb. 14 shootings, and the current “International Week” theme.

“When you have a traumatic event, you share in that,” Birberick said. “We wanted to do something that would speak to the NIU community ... We just felt the story had to be told.”

There were roughly 50 people in attendance in Faraday West and many came because the story appealed to them.

“I was interested in the subject and I thought it would be a unique opportunity to experience something that someone had [lived] firsthand,” said Brad Broughton, a senior political science major.

The film won the Verona Award for Best African Feature Film and a Signis Commendation for Best African Documentary at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in 2008, according to Ndahayo’s Web site.

While the film brings up the country-wide genocide, in which over 1 million people were killed, it focuses specifically on the killing of 200 Tutsi in a convent in a small town in Rwanda where Ndahayo’s mother, father and sister were killed. The weapons used in the killings are described as “traditional”: spears, arrows, machetes and clubs with nails in them. All of the bodies were thrown into a pit in the courtyard of the convent, where they were doused with fuel and battery acid and burned. For 12 years, Ndahayo lived in a house near where the bodies were buried in his backyard.

Nadahayo said there was one thing that really stuck out to him in witnessing the events: “People are capable of evil,” he said.

In the film, the people of Rwanda often discuss the concept of forgiveness and how it will help to alleviate the pain and bitterness, therefore diffusing the possibility of similar tragedies in the future.

“[The thing that stuck out most] was how the film focuses on the concept of forgiveness after such a horrible atrocity,” said Leah James, a graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in French.

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