In the stillness after conflict, the memory of violence transforms survivors into prisoners. How do whole societies recover from devastating conflict? Can survivors live — converse, smile, and even laugh — beside someone who blinded them, killed their parents, or murdered their children? Can victims and perpetrators work together to rebuild their lives? This life-changing documentary explores the intersections of justice and forgiveness as survivors heal from these tragedies.

About the Conflicts

The Rwandan Genocide

During the early 1990s, extremists from the majority ethnic group (Hutus) attributed social and economic problems in Rwanda to the presence of the Tutsi people, a minority ethnic group.  In 1994, about 200,000 Hutu extremists killed over 800,000 Tutsi people, as well as thousands of Hutus who opposed the genocide [x]. Since the Rwandan Genocide, the country has been knitting itself back together, with Tutsis working alongside Hutus to rebuild their communities.

The Troubles in Northern Ireland

During the late 1960s in Northern Ireland, competing ideas of national identity launched a 30-year-long conflict known as “the Troubles.” While unionists and loyalists generally wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, most nationalists and republicans wanted Northern Ireland to be united with the Republic of Ireland. CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet) counts 3531 dead between 1969 and 2001 and over 100,000 injured. Although violence from this conflict emerges sporadically, many believe the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 marks the end of the Troubles.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is an ongoing dispute in the region widely known as Israel-Palestine. Two important points of the conflict are its status as a single state or two sovereign states and the location of the borders. Although the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict officially began with the establishment of Israel as a state in the late 1940s, the roots of the tension extend further back to World Wars I and II or, by some accounts, even earlier.