Update from London!?

The Cast & Crew - from left to right...

Sonia, Eric, Tim, Bernie, Fabrice, Sven, Aloys, Viateur, Gladys, Sara, Solange, Debs
Mairi, Emmanuel, Kennedy, Ayuub, Billy, Celeste

Well - we're back. All apart from Sven at least, who's staying on now in Rwanda to work on another documentary. Bernie and I, Tim and Mairi flew in this morning (after an 8 hour layover in Nairobi - nice), which is what Sara had done the day before!

Tim's crane gets a run=out - wicked!

We said goodbye to the cast and crew in Kigali - hard to believe that 2 weeks have gone so quickly, and quite how much got done in that time!! I'll attempt to follow up this post with some sort of link to pictures of the shoot and everybody - they are such a cracking lot!

Kennedy playing the students' teacher, Mr Murigande

Still a little dazed to tell coherently of the 4 generators that packed up on us during a 5 day shoot, or Tim and Mairi's near miss getting on the plane from Entebbe (not their fault!) or Nairobi Eye Flies (better known to us now as Beelzebugs!), or the amazing support of the school students - including some of the siblings of those who died - who joined the film as cast, extras, techies and onlookers! ...

Or our incredible cast - who also mostly doubled as crew when they weren't acting!! - all found through the Rwanda Cinema Centre, who were a totally invaluable part of putting this together. Or Emmanuel and Emerte, survivors of the attack, who were script supervisors, extra-finders and incredibly supportive of the project.

Filming the rebels in a local townlet

Or for that matter, the amazing UK team - Sven, Tim, Mairi, Sara and Bernie - all self-funded, all unbelievably hard-working, passionate, talented and a real treat to do this with. Or particularly Ayuub, our co-writer and Rwandan producer extraordinaire - simply one of the best blokes you're ever likely to meet - and a gifted film-maker in his own right.

Recreating the attack scene, with guns loaned by the local police force!

More photos to follow - and maybe even some stills from the footage! Meanwhile - thanks loads for thoughts, prayers and support - even when it all went a bit mental, as it did more than once, it was a case of remembering that this really is quite an extraordinary story - and one definitely worth telling!

Our Nyange Students

Loads of love - xxxDebs