Shooting Dogs

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Shooting dogs
Promotional movie poster
Directed by	Michael Caton-Jones
Starring	John Hurt Hugh Dancy Claire-Hope Ashitey
Release date(s)	2005
Running time	115 min.
Country	UK / Germany
Language	English, French
IMDb profile

Shooting Dogs, released in the United States as Beyond the Gates, is a 2005 film, directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring John Hurt, Hugh Dancy, and introducing Claire-Hope Ashitey.

It is based on the experiences of BBC news producer David Belton, who worked in Rwanda during the Rwandan Genocide. Belton is the film's co-writer and one of its producers.

The setting of the film is the Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO) in Kigali, Rwanda in 1994, during the Rwandan Genocide. Hurt plays a Catholic priest and Dancy an English teacher, both Westerners, who are caught up in the events of the genocide.

Unlike Hotel Rwanda, which was filmed in South Africa using South African actors, the film was shot in the original location of the scenes it portrays. Also, many survivors of the massacre were employed as part of the production crew and minor acting roles.

The film's title refers to the actions of UN soldiers in shooting at the stray dogs that scavenged the bodies of dead. Since the UN soldiers were not allowed to shoot at the Hutus that had caused the deaths in the first place, the shooting of dogs is symbolic of the madness of the situation that the film attempts to capture.

One key sticking point involves the question, who was to blame? Francois Ngarambe, president of a Rwandan genocide survivors' association says that the film wrongly portrayed the genocide as largely the work of militia, neglecting the careful planning by the Hutu extremists in the government and the military.