Intercultural communication in the film Hotel Rwanda - Essay Example

Intercultural communication in the film Hotel Rwanda The film Hotel Rwanda (2004) directed by Terry George describes the catastrophic events of conflict between the two ethnic culture of Hutus and Tutsis which killed near about 80,000 people. The movie depicts the story of the attempted destruction of one cultural group by the other. The manager of the hotel Rwanda tried his best to save the lives of the Rwandans and succeeds in a major way. The film is a classic example where intercultural communication has been exhibited other than the strong depiction of the plot.

The film stages the relationship between the protagonist of the movie, Paul, the manager of the local hotel and Colonel Oliver, the peace keeper of the United Nations. The character of the colonel is portrayed as the character that had to bear the shame of the failure of the international agency to intervene peace in the locality of Rwanda. Paul is portrayed as a personal with exceptional leadership quality that has the ability to make significant decisions at crucial times. Paul is found to deliver a speech in the movie at a time where the conflict has reached its height.

In the speech he urges the victims to seek for help from any source they have to save their extinction. He also continues with the speech and let the refugees know that his hotel can no longer provide shelter to them. Throughout the scene in which Paul delivers his speech he depicts a strong body language and the voice of tone suggests the concern he has for the victims. His posture reflected the confidence which he wanted to spread among the people over there. Paul exhibits partial open and closed form of communication throughout his speech delivery.

Paul’s performance was quite symbolic in the scenes where he shivers during driving over dead bodies in the city. The movie successfully depicts the relationship which was there in the period of crisis between the Rwandans and the white Americans. The intercultural difference has been perfectly staged in the movie where we find that the tourists belonging from different cultures do not pay any heed to the situation and tries to escape away in fear of the controversy. In the movie Paul is also shown to be the victim of the conflict as he belonged to the ethnic class of Hutu and his wife was portrayed as Tutsi.

In the movie Paul was portrayed as a character that had strong qualities of interpersonal communication and through his communication skills he tries to divert the Hutu soldiers from carrying out their brutality against the Tutsi. Paul was also portrayed as a character possessing immense strength and was instrumental in raising the morale of his family. Paul’s nonverbal communication skills in culture were instrumental in displaying the power and helped in gathering the faith of many victims.

His body, facial expression and the tone was perfectly matched to exercise the powers and at the same time portray his worry for the mass. As the cultural pattern of the Tutsi was showing disintegration and was exhibiting separation from each other, Paul’s communication skills were effective in unifying them to a large extent. According to the theory of interpersonal communication that nonverbal and verbal communication plays a prominent role in the display of the power. The various elements which reflect the exercise of powers are body posture, delivery of speech, tone of the voice and eye contacts.

(Basic principles of communication, n.d., p.98) The incidents from the movie referred above showed that Paul, the protagonist of the movie has utilized all the elements of the nonverbal and verbal communication to gain efficiency in display of his powers and guide a whole community out of danger. The film portrays the result of the cultural misunderstanding and also depicts the diversity among the cultures. The display of the interpersonal communication is perfectly portrayed based on the situation and the cultures shown in the movie.

This has significantly drawn the distinction between the interpersonal communications exhibited in various cultures. In well built culture such arrogance and dominance are not noticed. The exercise of power through nonverbal communication is also not encouraged in a civil society. People behave in a much more modest and friendly manner and does not try to interfere in each other matters if not needed. The overall style of interpersonal communication is much more polished in a civic society. The film as a whole stands apart from various other movies in the portrayal of the interpersonal communication between cultures.

The perfection which the director achieves in depicting the traits of communication needs to be praised over and again. It provides a deep learning into various traits of communication. References Basic principles of communication George, T (dir.), (2004), Hotel Rwanda, United States: Lions gate entertainment