This World

A Killer's Homecoming (2004x6)

Air date: Feb 22, 2004

Ten years after the genocide that saw Hutus kill nearly one million Tutsis in just 100 days, Rwanda is still trying to come to terms with its bloody past. Theophile Ntaganda is one of thousands of killers now being released from prison. He killed his mother-in-law and two of his wife's sisters during the genocide. He wants her and their two children back. His wife Odette wants him dead. Theophile was one of the thousands of Hutus who took up arms a decade ago against the Tutsi, even though he was married to one. After almost nine years in prison, Theophile has been freed and sets out to find Odette and their two sons, Sharif and Kofi. Odette, however, has moved on. She tried to divorce Theophile shortly after he was imprisoned but the court rejected her request because he had not confessed to any crime. So Odette forged her documents and married again. The tables are turned. Theophile prepares to take Odette to court for bigamy. If found guilty, she could spend up to three years in prison. Whatever the outcome of the case, under Rwandan law, Theophile has the right to take his children away from their mother. Filmed over a year, this is a compelling human story, set in a country struggling to come to terms with one of the worst genocides in the twentieth century.