Beautifully Broken Takeaways

Julia Cogliano
jc493114@ohio.edu

Movie Overview. 
Beautifully Broken, a movie that is based off of true events, focuses on real life scenarios. The movie starts off with three families; one in the United States, along with two families in Rwanda, where a genocide took place in the 1990s. We watch these families connect and evolve over time. This movie has twists and turns that make viewers think about things that may not have been brought up recently.

One Planet, Two Different Worlds.
Although this movie focuses on families who both struggled in different ways, where they lived determined the lifestyle that they had. It was very eye opening and sad to see how in the blink of an eye a Tutsi father named William's life changed, and life on the other side of the world was not changed by these serious events. With the genocide beginning immediately after the Hutu president's plane was shot down, this father is forced to protect his family in ways that he may not have ever thought that he would have to. This is something that although may have saddened Americans, from my understanding, it was not a huge topic of conversation. William had to move his family in a rush from place to place to avoid the Hutu extremists, to keep his family away from a certain death. The comparison of different events going on at the same time all around the world made me realize that life is a privilege and that things can change at any time, therefore life should not be taken for granted.

Everyone Struggles. 
In one scene of this movie, when William's daughter, Aimee, is talking to her father, she claims that the teenage girl from Nashville, Andrea, has "never struggled in her life."  As viewers of the movie, we had learned over time that in fact, this statement was not true. Andrea had struggled very badly with something traumatizing that she did not feel comfortable sharing with anyone else. William humbly reminded Aimee how everyone has struggled, even if we think that they have not. This is something that I feel our society as a whole commonly forgets about in everyday life. Sometimes it is easy to assume that the person who looks like they have it all, may not actually have it all. Life can be deceiving, and appearances are not always what they seem to be. My take away from this point is that you should always be kind to everyone no matter what. I also want to continue to remember that although it may not be obvious that someone has struggled in the past, or is currently struggling with something, that chances are every person has been through something that has effected them negatively. Therefore, you should always be kind and considerate to each persons feelings.


History. 
This movie had some great hidden messages about staying humble and kind that I feel as if should are important to keep in mind in everyday life to help make the world a better place. However, there is also a reminder in this movie that a huge tragedy took place in the world less than 25 years ago. This genocide began in 1990, and I find it important to be educated on our worlds history. Attached is a link about the Rwandan Genocide that I found informative, and educating.