A powerful, based-on-fact film, Shooting Dogs follows John Hurt’s priest and Hugh Dancy’s idealistic young teacher as they watch bureaucracy, institutional racism and generations of hate lead to mass murder in Rwanda. It’s April, 1994 and after the apparent assassination of the president, the country is in uproar: the majority Hutus are blaming the Tutsis - and killing them. By the bus load. Refugees seek shelter at the United Nations-guarded school of Father Christopher (Hurt), but no one’s sure how long the UN troops will stay...

Of the performers, Dancy looks effectively shell-shocked but it is Hurt who excels. The veteran actor makes his man of the cloth both admirable and ambiguous - the heart and soul of an unusually thoughtful film.

After Michael Caton-Jones gained attention at Britain’s National Film School for his shorts Liebe Mutter and The Riveter Caton-Jones directed projects for BBC-TV and won international acclaim for his feature debut, Scandal (1989), a compelling look at Britain’s Profumo-Keeler sex scandal of the early 1960s. The film won him attention from Hollywood, and various assignments followed: Memphis Belle (1990), Doc Hollywood (1991), the unflinching, powerful adaptation of Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life (1993), starring Robert De Niro – the director’s finest work to date and Rob Roy (1995).

Producers: Richard Alwyn, David Belton, Ruth Caleb, Pippa Cross, Jens Meurer, Karsten Stöter, David M. Thompson, Paul Trijbits, Andrew Wood Screenwriter: David Wolstencroft Cinematographer: Ivan Strasburg Editor: Christian Lonk Music: Dario Marianelli Cast: Claire-Hope Ashitey, Hugh Dancy, David Gyasi, Dominique Horwitz, John Hurt, Susan Nalwoga, Steve Toussaint, Nicola Walker