Rising From Ashes

Synopsis:  The story of a group of young Rwandan men with a passion for cycling came to symbolize the country’s efforts to rise above the tragedy of the 1994 genocide.

Although T.C. Johnstone’s documentary about the Rwandan National Cycling Team, a.k.a. Team Rwanda, feels at times overly beholden to the familiar zero-to-hero sports film template, the real humanity that underpins the story makes it well worth seeing.

The ashes referred to in the title are those of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which approximately 1 million members of the Tutsi people were slaughtered by Hutus over a three-month period, or roughly  one person every 10 seconds for 100 days.  The young Rwandan men who are the subject of this documentary were all children at the time and, needless, to say, the tragedy haunts their lives. Rising From Ashes is the story of how they found a way out of the darkness and in so doing provided a inspirational model for their fellow countrymen (although also for some, objects of envy).

The seed of Team Rwanda was planted by American mountain bike pioneer,Tom Ritchey, who toured Rwanda in 2005. He saw the love of cycling amongst the kids there and was so gripped by the idea that there was the potential to put together a team that could compete on the international stage that he persuaded his cycling buddie, Jonathan "Jock" Boyer, who in 1981 had been the first American to ride in the Tour De France, to come to Rwanda and help.

Rising From Ashes is the story of how Ritchey’s dream became a reality. Partly because the Rwandans do not speak English well and are not particularly articulate the perspective is very much a top-down one. There are two elements to this. One is provided by Forest Whittaker’s intermittent narration which gives us the factual background to the building of the team and the genocide, the memory of which is an unspoken part of everyday reality for the Rwandans. The other is the reflections of Boyer, a vastly experienced athlete and a man recovering from his own personal darkness and thus well-suited to his complex role as team manager.  It is a synchronicity that also works well for the film as it adds layers of meaning to the basic story (I would also have liked to know about the economics of the project, clearly not a cheap one).

Made over a period of six years, from the beginnings of Team Rwanda in 2006 to the eventual the eventual participation of team member, Adrien Niyonshuti, in the 2012 London Olympics. Rising From Ashes is essentially a film about redemption. The story maybe small, but the spirit is large.

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