Our Lady of the Nile is a 2019 French-language film directed and co-written by Atiq Rahimi. An adaptation of the 2012 novel Our Lady of the Nile by Rwandan writer Scholastique Mukasonga, the film is set in Rwanda in 1994, amid the beginning of the tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples that would eventually culminate in the genocide against the Tutsi.
Plot The film is set in Rwanda in the early 1990s at an elite Catholic girls’ boarding school, Our Lady of the Nile, located near the source of the Nile. The school brings together students from both Hutu and Tutsi backgrounds under the supervision of European clergy and teachers. Although the institution promotes discipline and religious values, ethnic divisions persist. Tutsi students face informal quotas and discrimination, while Hutu students are encouraged to assert ethnic identity. As political tensions intensify across the country, hostility within the school escalates. Influenced by propaganda and social pressures, some students engage in acts of exclusion and violence against their Tutsi classmates. The breakdown of order within the school ultimately mirrors the wider collapse of coexistence in Rwandan society, foreshadowing the genocide against the Tutsi.
Cast
Clariella Bizimana as Veronica Amanda Santa Mugabekazi as Virginia Pascal Greggory as Monsieur Fontenaille Albina Kirenga as Gloriosa Belinda Rubango as Modesta Malaika Uwamahoro (credited as Angel Uwamahoro) as Immaculée
Awards 2020 Berlin International Film Festival, Winner: Crystal Bear (Generation 14plus) Best Film.
Festivals
2019 Toronto Film Festival (where it premiered) 2019. Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival 2020, Giffoni Film Festival 2020, Cinemania 2020 Africa in Motion 2020, São Paulo International Film Festival 2020, Fribourg International Film Festival 2020, Seville European Film Festival 2020, Palm Springs International Film Festival 2020, Haifa International Film Festival 2020, Luxor African Film Festival 2021, Adelaide Film Festival 2021, New York African Film Festival Darwin Film Festival Marrakech International Film Festival
References
External links
Our Lady of the Nile at Rotten Tomatoes Our Lady of the Nile at Metacritic