Roy Dupuis as Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire in Shake Hands with the Devil Courtesy of Seville Pictures

Documentary or dramatization, any retelling of Dallaire's book is bad press for the UN's involvement in Rwanda, and when asked if the UN is aware that the film had been made, Spottiswoode answers: "Yes, perfectly well. It is a complicated organization. There are people there that are probably very glad because they are frustrated. Because [peacekeepers of] member nations of the Security Council died there. And then there are people — like in every big organization — that are not so good, but then there are also some very good people there."

Spottiswoode singles out the role played by the United States during that period, pointing out that despite overwhelming evidence of genocide, United States officials voted against taking a leading role in dealing with the slaughter in Rwanda. After all, it had been less than a year since images of dead American troops being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu led to the Clinton administration pulling out U.S. troops from Somalia.

"So even in that time," recalls Spottiswoode, "you had America saying: 'We won't even talk about genocide because we might have to do something, and we don't want to be involved because we have had a bad experience in Africa. We cannot do it again.' They didn't want to do anything or get involved in foreign escapades. Bush did. And it has been a disaster!"

Spottiswoode is also mindful that Shake Hands with the Devil will engage audiences with questions about another African genocide that is unspooling in Darfur.

"It is completely timely," he says. "I wish it wasn't. But it is. It is too late to do anything about Rwanda. But, my God, we can learn. We have to start learning from history. We have a White House that doesn't even know there are history books. Somehow, the rest of us have to start looking at history and learning from it and doing something about it."

Shake Hands With the Devil is in limited release in the U.S. starting Sept. 28, 2007.