Hot Docs

Belgium’s dark colonial past comes to light in Greetings from the Colony, a story of exclusion and sadness that begins with a Rwandan woman who’s betrothed to a Belgian territorial agent while he serves a term in the early 1920s in Rwanda. Together they have three children, but at the end of his term the agent meets a young Belgian woman, marries her and returns to Belgium. Abandoning his Rwandan wife and two sons he chooses to bring only his daughter Suzanne, believing he can give her a better life than what she faces in Rwanda. Decades later the agent’s granddaughter, filmmaker Nathalie Borgers, breaks the long family silence in this revealing documentary that tells the real story of what Suzanne faced growing up in a family of denial and a country with a contentious colonial history. Heather Haynes

Screening with Which Direction to Go?.

Media Coverage

• thestar.com 10 Hot Docs Documentaries to Watch
• CityNews Toronto hot picks