‘‘Munyurangabo’’ was made in Rwanda in 11 days by an American filmmaker, who hired amateur actors from local orphanages.

By DENNIS LIM

It is safe to say that when most American filmmakers think about the global reach of their movies, they are not considering the concept in quite the same way as Lee Isaac Chung, whose first feature, “Munyurangabo,” happens also to be the first narrative feature made in Rwanda’s native language of Kinyarwanda.
“I know this sounds idealistic, but it was a conscious decision to make a film for and about Rwandans,” Mr. Chung, 29, said in an interview last spring during the Cannes Film Festival, where his film had its premiere.
“It was definitely not a practical decision,” he added, referring to the challenge of making a movie in a country he had never visited and where he did not speak the language. “But since it was our first film, we thought, ‘Why not-’ ”
A few years ago Mr. Chung’s wife, Valerie, an art therapist who had traveled to Rwanda as a volunteer to help those affected by the 1994 genocide, urged him to accompany her. He signed on to teach a filmmaking class at a Christian relief base in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, in the summer of 2006.
Sensing an opportunity to make a movie that presents the country as it is now, not simply as a historical site of atrocity, he arrived with a nine-page outline. It is the story of two teenage boys and the single-minded quest that comes between them, which he had written with the help of Samuel Anderson, an old friend. He shot “Munyurangabo” at the end of his trip, over 11 days, working with nonprofessional actors he found through local orphanages and using a few of his students as crew members.
The film has since played at more than a dozen festivals since Cannes, including ones in New York, Toronto and Berlin and at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles (where it won the top prize). Unlike the Rwanda-themed films of recent years - “Hotel Rwanda,” “Sometimes in April,” “Beyond the Gates” - “Munyurangabo” does not explicitly revisit the 1994 slaughter of Tutsis by extremist Hutus. It is instead a quiet accounting of the aftermath, tracing the effects as they are felt among friends and within households, setting the thirst for vengeance against the possibility of reconciliation.
Questions of identity and belonging have fascinated and flummoxed Mr. Chung for much of his life. He was born in Colorado a year after his parents emigrated from Korea, and he grew up in rural Arkansas.
(He now lives in Brooklyn.) “I’ve never felt completely American,” he said. “Growing up where I was, there were no Asians, no minorities, and there was always something to remind me of what I’m not. And when I go to Korea it’s the same thing. I’m constantly reminded that I’m not Korean.”
This sense of placelessness lies at the heart of “Munyurangabo” - the title is the name of one of the characters and of an ancient Rwandan warrior. “I wanted to make something that transcends borders and gets beyond this feeling of national identity,” Mr. Chung said. It is a sentiment that links his film with the recent work of several adventurous young American directors who represent a break from the domestic independent tradition, drawing instead from the humanist, neorealist school and contemporary descendants like Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami, Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien and Belgium’s Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne.
Mr. Chung acknowledged that the festival success of Munyurangabo,” while a boon, has occasionally left him uncomfortable. “There are times I’ve almost felt colonialist about it,” he said, referring to the awkward position of being an American effectively representing Rwanda on the international festival circuit.
Lack of infrastructure remains a major impediment to the growth of Rwandan film culture. There are only two theaters in the country, Mr. Chung said, which cater mainly to expatriates. “Munyurangabo” has yet to play in Rwanda, though a screening is planned for later this year. Mr. Chung is also returning this summer, as he did last summer, to teach and work toward the establishment of a film school.
There are already signs of progress. A few of his students have just finished their own film, Mr. Chung said. He hasn’t seen it, but he does know one thing: “They’re submitting it to Cannes.”