Following the UNHCR relief team, the investigation team stayed in a refugee camp on the border of Congo and Liberia for more than a week, during which Lin Mingyang's camera recorded many tragic scenes: a nursing mother had begun to develop severe edema in her stomach, but in order to soothe the child's hunger, she had to endure the pain of being sucked and put her nipple head, which had no milk, in the child's mouth. A hungry man too weak to stand up, crawling into an emergency shelter, was completely alive on the bones... It is impossible for everyone to remain indifferent when they see these scenes, hunger tortures their bodies, but these tragic scenes go straight to the heart, torturing the souls of all witnesses.

The team spent less than a week in the camp in total, and during that time everyone was tormented, with some members unable to swallow anything after a round around the camp. Ginny and Luna, not to mention eating, remembers what they saw in the refugee camp, and they have a sick stomach and rely on glucose every day to maintain their strength.

After leaving the border refugee camp, the team traveled to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, which was the last leg of Lin's trip to Africa. Because Rwanda voted to adopt a new constitution in '03, Professor Clear is ready to examine how the African country's political and economic situation has improved since the introduction of the new constitution.

The team followed the newly built road into Kigali's old town, headed for a verdant hill and finally found a beige three-star hotel in a camphor forest. The five-storey hotel has a spacious lobby and corridors, surrounded by a blue swimming pool and a stylish open-air buffet restaurant.

Outside the hotel building, a tall, snow-white stone monument engraved with the name of the hotel was engraved, and when the members of the investigation team got off the bus, many foreign tourists took pictures in front of the stone monument. With the reporter's keen intuition, Ginny sensed that something was not right about this.

"Qianshan Hotel, is this hotel famous?" She raised her doubts with the accompanying interpreter.

She was told that the Thousand Hills Hotel was Kigali's oldest foreign-related shop. Rwanda is mountainous and highland, with more than 1,800 large and small mountain resorts. The capital, Kigali, is known as the "Rome of Africa" because, like Rome, it is built on seven hills. The name "Thousand Hills Hotel" comes from the title of Rwanda, the "Land of a Thousand Hills".

Lin Mingyang didn't pay attention to these at first, but he found a lot of strange things in the lobby of the hotel, some equipment and props that should only appear in the movie crew.

"Is anyone making a movie here?" The thought crossed his mind, and then he beckoned to the waiter in the lobby, and after the other party came over, Lin Mingyang took out a $20 bill from his pocket.

"I'm curious, what are these things here for?"

The waiter took the tip he gave, and naturally knew everything: "There is a British director who is shooting a movie here, and their crew is resting today, these are all things in their crew." ”

Sure enough, someone was making a movie here, and after confirming his suspicions, Lin Mingyang suddenly became interested in this film, which was shot in the Rwandan capital.

"Do you know what they're filming?"

"This—" The waiter looked hesitant and embarrassed.

Lin Mingyang took out a larger dollar bill from his pocket, "I just want to know what they're shooting, this shouldn't be considered a secret, right?" ”

"Because our manager told that if a passenger asks about the equipment, tell them that a crew is working on a promotional video." The waiter looked at the banknote in Lin Mingyang's hand, and finally chose to tell the truth: "I only know that the content they filmed is related to the 1994 Rwandan massacre." ”

Lin Mingyang was stunned, he knew that the genocide that shocked the world in Rwanda in 1994 was the most appalling and tragic genocide since World War II, and the capital Kigali unfortunately became the center of the whirlpool. Instigated by political thugs and media accomplices, thousands of Hutu became executioners, wielding machetes, sticks, and even hoes, killing Tutsis, neighbors, and colleagues; Soldiers kill civilians, doctors kill patients, teachers kill students...... The small green country was soon littered with corpses and rivers of blood. In just 100 days, 800,000 people died as a result of killing each other. In the aftermath of the massacre, Rwanda was not at peace, with more than 200,000 people killed in the fighting.

But when he heard the word "massacre", Lin Mingyang suddenly thought of a movie, the content of which was related to the Rwandan massacre, and then a bold guess jumped into his mind, is this the filming crew of that film?

Lin Mingyang remembers that in that movie, a black Hutu man named Paul, regardless of his personal safety, resolutely picked up thousands of Tutsi refugees from the foreign-related hotel where he worked, and did everything possible to escort them out of danger. The plot of this movie is based on true events, and the location where the film was filmed is where the story takes place. If it weren't for this waiter's reminder, Lin Mingyang would not have been able to imagine that the beige hotel in front of him had experienced such an extraordinary thing.

Now that the hatred and carnage are gone, there is no longer any smell of blood in the camphor-scented air around the Qianshan Hotel. The hotel, which has changed hands several times but is always run by a white owner, seems to be deliberately trying to erase the memory of those years. Lin Mingyang noticed that there were no monuments around the hotel, and even its Internet homepage did not mention anything about it.

Lin Mingyang not only got what he wanted from his mouth, but also learned the house number of the room where the film's director, Ritter George, was staying.

Lin Mingyang himself was planning to make a film about Africa, so he decided to pay a visit to the British director, and the conversation with him might give him some inspiration.

In the middle of the road, Lin Mingyang met Jinni, he quickly told the other party the news, and then there was an extra little tail around him that couldn't be shaken off, which made Lin Mingyang regret it in his heart.

The waiter told Lin Mingyang that Rhett George was staying in room 2116 of the hotel, but it was not Rhett George himself who opened the door for them.

The guy first noticed the beautiful Ginny, and then noticed Lin Mingyang standing behind her, and then he called out in surprise: "Felix? ”

Listening to the other party's tone, it seemed that he knew Lin Mingyang, but Lin Mingyang searched hard in his mind, and finally determined that he didn't know him.

"I'm Rupert Williams, and I used to be an assistant to Mr. Lupin, the president of MGM Pictures." Seeing the blankness on Lin Mingyang's face, the other party prompted: "When filming "Sister and Brother Agent", I used to go to the crew, and we took photos together at that time. ”

It turned out to be someone from MGM, Lin Mingyang nodded suddenly, although he couldn't remember that he had taken a photo with this guy at all, but this did not prevent him from talking to the other party familiarly.

Williams told Lin Mingyang that MGM had recently invested in a new film, and that he had been appointed executive producer of the film. Lin Mingyang told Williams why he was here, and introduced him to Ginny next to him.

Williams's status as a reporter alerted Williams, and he was relieved when he learned that she was only a reporter for the Harvard Crimson. Lin Mingyang explained his intention to Williams, and he told Lin Mingyang that when he checked into the hotel, Rhett George changed rooms with him, but did not register at the hotel's main desk. Knowing that Lin Mingyang was interested in the film, Williams was happy to act as an intermediary and introduce Rhett George to him.

After a phone call, Williams reluctantly told Lin Mingyang that Ritter George had gone to the Kisoki Holocaust Memorial on the outskirts of the city to look for inspiration for the shoot, and the meeting had to be postponed until the evening.

When Ginny heard that there was such a memorial on the outskirts of Kigali, she wanted to go and see it, but Lin Mingyang's words made her completely dismiss this idea.

"If you know a little bit about that history, you should know that the Rwandan tragedy was probably the most barbaric genocide in history, and most of the executioners used machetes, sticks, hoes and other farm tools that they used to work in the fields, and now those rusty murder butcher knives and dense skulls of victims, as well as all kinds of tragic corpses, are displayed in that memorial."

Ginny was frightened by the shocking news, but after dinner, she insisted on going with Lin Mingyang to see Rhett George.

Out of professional habits as a journalist, Ginny also deliberately looked up information about Rhett George on the Internet before the meeting, and she found that the director had been nominated for an Oscar and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Best Screenplay for the Golden Bear film "In the Name of the Father"; His directorial debut, Pure Ambition, has also won numerous awards at the European Film Festival and the Sebastian Film Festival.

The meeting place was in the café of the Thousand Hills Hotel, and Rhett-George looked middle-aged, with a somewhat solemn expression on his face. He has repeatedly expressed in media interviews a long time ago that he hopes to make a film related to Africa, and it seems that this time he has finally fulfilled his dream of African films. This is Jinnie found out the information, but Lin Mingyang did not see this joy in the other party's eyes, but found a deep worry.

Ritter George told Lin Mingyang that his impulse to shoot "Hotel Rwanda" began three years ago with a meeting with the film's protagonist, Paul Ruth Sebergina, who told Ritter George about his own experience, and the moving story made George experience two completely contradictory feelings, namely excitement and fear. Get excited about thrilling, touching, and authentic great material; Fear of such a deep and little-known historical fact, a dark history of the world's abandonment of Rwanda, is recreated enough to put the world to shame.

Despite the total weight difficulties, Rhett George finally wrote the script without hesitation, MGM agreed to invest in the film at first, but they wanted to invite a more box office appeal actor like Denzel Washington to play the film's lead role Paul, but the starring Don Cheadle is the actor that Rhett George had chosen when he conceived the script, he refused MGM's request, and the relationship between the two parties was very stiff, MGM even threatened R George to withdraw if he did not change the actor, But Ritter George still went his own way and came to Rwanda with the crew.

As a producer, Williams has always supported director Rheter George's idea, but he personally can't influence the wishes of MGM's upper echelons, and at this time, Lin Mingyang's sudden appearance made Williams see the turn of things, so he was so enthusiastic and took the initiative to facilitate this meeting.

When Lin Mingyang was not yet 17 years old, "Sister and Brother Agent", written and starred by him, was a box office hit, helping MGM to survive the difficulties of frequent bankruptcy. At that time, his talent was already highly valued by MGM, and he had a close relationship with MGM President Lupin, and if he was willing to speak for Rhett George this time, he might be able to influence the decision of MGM's top management.

Williams is not sure how big that impact will be. But this is the only way now, that is, a dead horse is used as a live horse doctor, and Williams has to give it a try, on the contrary, Rhett George himself does not have much hope, and he is even ready to shoot this film out of his own pocket, so his attitude has been lukewarm when he meets Lin Mingyang.

Lin Mingyang did not show much enthusiasm for the production and shooting of the film, he just asked Ritter George for some tips on filming films related to Africa.

During the conversation, Lin Mingyang revealed that he was also going to make a film about Africa, and this idea resonated with him and Rhett George, who took the initiative to share with him the various experiences of the series of stages of "Hotel Rwanda" from conception to preparation.

Before the film, Ritter George spent a long time in Rwanda, trying to find the cause of the tragic history. But in the 10 years since the massacre, Rwanda has become unusually calm. Every Rwandan, a friend or relative has been killed or participated in the killing, but they still live together. Hutu and Tutsis live together on verdant hills, where trouble rarely occurs, and the country seems to have magically united.

Ritter George interviewed a Hutu teacher, but he was reluctant to talk about anything related to politics and the Holocaust, and a Tutsi businessman booed and told him, "Don't talk so loudly!" Even though the conversation was in a noisy restaurant, the merchant looked around nervously. No one dared to risk saying anything, lest the informant hear and doubt his loyalty to the present system.

Eventually, Ritter George went to a technical school in southern Rwanda and walked through a room filled with dried corpses, where 4,000 people were slaughtered over a four-day period in April 1994, and the sole survivor told him about the scene and showed him the scar from his severed head. Empathetic Ritter George believes that the most important thing in his life is to make a movie about this tragic past.

(To be continued)