It’s not often that watching one movie changes my mind about another movie, but that’s exactly what happened when I watched “Hotel Rwanda”.

I had seen Sometimes in April just a week beforehand. It made a mixed impression on me. The performances were strong, and the cinematography made me feel like I was in Africa — but I found the script occasionally heavy-handed. After watching, “Hotel Rwanda”, however, “Sometimes in April” seems a model of restraint and nuance, and “Hotel Rwanda”, like a hollywood remake. And after seeing “Sometimes in April”, I could not believe “Hotel Rwanda”.

Perhaps a story with well-delineated heroes and villains is the only way that some people will come to understand what happened in Rwanda. But if this movie is their guide, I think they will miss the lesson that underlies this atrocity, and every atrocity of this kind: That man’s inhumanity to man is a very human thing, after all. And none of us are innocent.