FILM DIARY

Special Presentation: Shake Hands with the Devil
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Writers: Yves Simoneau, Michael Donovan
Producers: Michael Donovan, Laszlo Barna, Arnie Gelbart
Cast: Roy Dupuis, Deborah Kara Unger, Jean-Hugues Anglade, James Gallanders
Distributor: Seville Pictures
International Sales: Seville

IT took retired Canadian Lt-General Roméo Dallaire seven years to write the book Shake Hands with the Devil, an account of the insurmountable odds he faced leading an ill-fated U.N. peacekeeping force into the dark heart of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. It also took nearly seven years for producers Michael Donovan and Laszlo Barna to bring Dallaire’s biopic to a world premiere at TIFF.

Their moviemaking story is an effort fraught with obstacles, risk and soul-searching. Donovan and Barna, long successful producers, found themselves bogged down and beaten down trying to finance a project seemingly on life-support. The making of the movie Shake Hands with the Devil is a story of long years of hard work and persistence – of hitting bottom, of going overtime and over-budget to tell the story of a Canadian hero.

Jan. 11, 1994: Canadian Lt-General Roméo Dallaire, leading a UN peace-keeping force in Rwanda, is told by a military informant to ‘prepare for an extermination.’

April 6 – July 16, 1994: Around 800,000 people are brutally slaughtered in Rwanda.

July 13, 2000: The horrors of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide comes home to Halifax-based producer Michael Donovan (Halifax Film) when he picks up a newspaper and reads that Dallaire has been discovered drunk, under a park bench, in Ottawa.

The implication was an apparent suicide, Donovan remembers: ‘The story completely captured my imagination. I clipped it, not sure what to do.’

March 2001: Toronto producer Laszlo Barna has finished producing The Last Just Man, a documentary chronicling the Rwandan genocide, and learns that Dallaire, retired and in recovery, is writing an account of his ill-fated Rwandan command.

Summer 2001: Barna and Donovan duel for the film rights to Dallaire’s book, now titled Shake Hands with the Devil, with Westwood Creative Artists auctioning.

Donovan recalls early doubts about the project: ‘Movies have an ideal structure – three acts, good guys and bad guys, a transformative ending. There’s none of that here. I thought it probably couldn’t work,’ he explains.

But Donovan’s mind changes on meeting the charismatic Dallaire face-to-face.

‘In retrospect, I felt I had no choice but to make this film after our meeting. Maybe I shouldn’t have had that meeting. I would be a lot richer today,’ he says, displaying pre-launch jitters before Shake Hands with the Devil bows at TIFF.

January 2002: Donovan and Barna decide to jointly produce the dramatic feature. But writing a script and securing financing prove problematic. Donovan’s brother Paul takes a stab at a screenplay, and soon finds chronicling a Canadian general and his troops watching helplessly and confusedly as a genocide unfolds doesn’t fit cinematic conventions.

Early 2003: Serious pursuing is required to book Roger Spottiswoode as director. Ottawa-born Spottiswoode, whose credits include the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, fields Barna’s initial pitch on a crackling cell phone. ‘I thought it was a Canadian devil movie and I wasn’t going to do one of those,’ he says. He turns the project down.

January 2004: Barna and Donovan make their first application for movie funding to Telefilm Canada, deep into exec director Richard Stursberg’s tenure. The agency is eyeing box-office winners, not serious, dark pictures.

Telefilm says no to the producers’ initial financing request, leaving both fearing they might have to abandon both Dallaire and the project.

April 2004: Peter Raymont chronicles Dallaire’s first return to Rwanda for a documentary titled Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire.

July 2005: Telefilm reconsiders and approves investment in the Dallaire biopic after newly installed executive director Wayne Clarkson gets behind it.

‘It’s hard to call Rwanda a good story. But it was a good script. It did resonate with me,’ Clarkson said of his decision to bet on Shake Hands with the Devil.

Late 2005: Now with a better grasp of the story, Spottiswoode agrees to direct the Rwandan drama when his next project, The Children of Huang, is delayed.

The veteran director chooses to tell the story of the Rwandan genocide through Dallaire’s eyes to avoid confusing audiences.

After a series of frustrating false starts on the script, Barna recognizes Spottiswoode’s breakthrough: ‘By telling the movie through Dallaire, it became a story of conscience.’

After a number of rewrites – at one point involving director Yves Simoneau – and various conceptions of the project, the final writing credits will go to Simoneau and Michael Donovan.

February 2006: Toronto-based Martin Katz, an exec producer on the similarly themed Hotel Rwanda, helps fill out the $10-million budget. Montreal-based Arnie Gelbart of Galafilm comes on board, and Seville Pictures picks up the Canadian distribution rights.

The funders list also lengthens to include the CBC and Radio-Canada, The Movie Network, Movie Central, Super Écran and The Harold Greenberg Fund.

May 30, 2006: Roy Dupuis is cast to play the lead role of Dallaire. Also starring are Deborah Kara Unger, Jean-Hugues Anglade, James Gallanders, Michel Mongeau, Owen Lebakeng Sejake and Odile Katesi Gakire.

June 2, 2006: Barna and Donovan unveil Dupuis, Spottiswoode and the movie project at a press conference in Montreal.

Mid-June 2006: A 250-strong crew with 400,000 pounds of production gear starts a 30-day shoot in Kigali.

July 4, 2006: This journalist arrives in Kigali for an on-set visit, and witnesses technical problems galore: few tools or proper materials to build sets, and an underfunded film going over-budget.

But I also witness a production crew inspired by the story they’re telling, filming on the streets and in the buildings where Dallaire faced down gangs of Hutu killers, where he made urgent calls to the UN in New York City, asking for military reinforcements while world leaders moved from disinterest to abandonment.

I’m river-side for the film’s penultimate scene when Dupuis, now in the skin of a crest-fallen Dallaire, his warning of massive slaughter ignored, discovers dead bodies – actually rubber cadavers constructed by Toronto visual effects creators A. Scott Hamilton and Maya Kulenovic – floating beneath the wooden bridge on which he stands.

August 2006: After Rwandan production, a second unit shoots in Halifax.

Fall 2006: The movie begins editing at Splice Postproduction in Montreal. Donovan and Barna, earlier eyeing a Cannes bow, decide on launching at TIFF after crunch edits and market testing.

April 2007: Seville offers a sneak preview of Shake Hands with the Devil at ShowCanada 2007.

Dallaire, seeing his life condensed into two hours, attends a private screening.

Barna recalls his reaction: ‘He wouldn’t say a word. He excused himself and said he’d be back in 15 minutes.’

When he does return, an emotional Dallaire brands the movie ‘wonderful,’ but expresses concerns his story would overshadow that of the Rwandan people, his top priority as he continues his humanitarian work in Africa.

After additional screenings and edits, Barna is most proud of Dallaire’s latest review: ‘You got it really right.’

Aug. 10, 2007: Barna holds a private screening of Shake Hands with the Devil in Kigali with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was a military commander during the genocide, in the audience.

Sept. 11, 2007: The film is to have its world premiere at TIFF.

Sept. 13, 2007: After Toronto, Shake Hands with the Devil will open the Atlantic Film Festival.

Sept. 28, 2007: The movie will open on around 100 screens Canada-wide.