Barely a week after his return from Rwanda, Roy Dupuis still talks emotionally about the filming of Shake Hands with the Devil, the screen adaptation of the book J’ai serré la main du Diable in which Lt.-General Roméo Dallaire recounts his painful experience of the Rwandan genocide. 

In this $10m English-Canadian production directed by Roger Spottiswoode (Tomorrow Never Dies), the 43-year-old Quebecois actor plays General Dallaire.  The film, like the book, relates Roméo Dallaire’s predicament during the peace mission in Rwanda in 1994, and also the acute trauma that his experience caused him after his return. 

For the shoot, Roy Dupuis spent more than two months in Rwanda, from the beginning of June till mid-August.  This experience affected him on every level.

“I carried the whole film on my own; I had six days of shooting per week, and I worked on my only day off.  So I worked for almost 3 months non-stop.  Also, the subject was certainly very difficult.  Not to mention the character, which was intense and complex.  It was really tough.  I almost didn’t get through it.”

Roy Dupuis met with Roméo Dallaire several times before the beginning of shooting. 

“I could have chosen not to, but since the film happens in a reality that most people, myself included, don’t know about, I needed to speak with him.  But even though I took part in these meetings in order to build my character, I didn’t try to imitate him in the film.
“He’s a fine character; straight, sure of himself; he commands respect.  He put me in mind of a priest.  For him, being a general is a vocation.  He really believes that.”

On location in Rwanda, the Quebecois actor also tried to understand what could have provoked such a tragedy.

“But it was hard for me to comprehend how a group of people could come to commit atrocities like that,” he admits.  “I believe that killing became like a drug to them. To help me grasp it, General Dallaire spoke a lot about their expressions, about what he had seen in their eyes when he met them.  Talking to him, I realised that I had seen this murderous expression some years before, in Bosnia.
“I also listened to the accounts of people who had been witness to the massacre and who, as though taking refuge in religion, now talk about it being the Devil who committed these crimes.  I’m not a believer, but I can understand the power of this image.”

Despite finding his trip to Rwanda exhausting, Roy Dupuis has fallen under the spell of the land of a thousand hills.

“The Rwandans don’t talk a lot about the genocide, they are very reserved people. But they are magnificent, with astonishing physical beauty.  They also have a great zest for life.  And their country is extraordinary.  With all these hills you sometimes think you’re in paradise.
“The problem is that it’s very poor and they’re still living in the 19^th century.  87% of the population is unemployed.  They have to try to move into the 21^st century without harming the country too much.  It’s also overpopulated.  It’s the second most densely populated country in the world.  That maybe explains a little what happened 10 years ago …”