Each year it seems there is at least one film which receives major award nominations and sets itself apart as being important to watch. Amid the dramas, comedies and biopics of 2005, "Hotel Rwanda" puts a human face on a horrific event in recent history-the genocide of nearly 1 million people in Rwanda in 1994.

The film addresses a multitude of topics. It's about a father fighting for the survival of his family. It's about staying human in the face of such utter madness. It's a political attack on organizations that let the event escalate to a level that could have been prevented.

"Hotel Rwanda" is the most important film of this year's Oscar season.

"Hotel Rwanda" follows Paul (Don Cheadle), a hotel manager who risks his life trying to protect his family and others in the face of rampaging ethnic violence.

Cheadle's terrific performance is the backbone of the movie.

Without a solid, charismatic lead, the film's emotional impact would have been greatly lessened. Cheadle, relegated to character roles for too long, has finally gotten the chance to burst out and deliver an epic, career-defining performance and was rewarded with an Oscar nod for best actor.

The film nicely lays out the ethnic conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi clans early on, and it was not as confusing as I had thought it might be.

We see the tensions slowly rise as Hutus march and spout violent rhetoric about exterminating the Tutsi "cockroaches."

The early parts of the film could have been a mess as it tries to tell us who the Hutu/Tutsi people are and why they hate one another.

Thankfully, "Hotel Rwanda" was written and directed by Terry George. George is a specialist in this kind of emotionally political style of filmmaking, as he wrote films including "The Boxer" and "In the Name of the Father."

Those films involved complex Irish political situations that have festered for centuries, so this kind of story is a good match for his storytelling style.

When the slaughter begins, Paul rushes to protect his Tutsi wife and children.

He gets drawn into a much deeper well of risk as hundreds upon hundreds seek his four-star hotel as refuge from the Hutu, who wander the streets chopping people up by the thousands with machetes.

Paul has spent a long time bribing corrupt generals and businessmen with the hope that favors would be called in if he ever needed help. Now is the time to call in those favors.

One emotion I was struck with as I watched this was one of anger. The genocide that occurred in Rwanda and the lack of concern or aid given to the situation after it started gives evidence to the idea that a country's wealth-or lack of it in the case of Rwanda-is the most important element to receive help from Western powers.

These are poor Africans from a country most people in the West couldn't find on a map. Nobody gives a damn about these people because they have nothing to offer Western nations economically.

If they did, that bastion of peacekeeping-the United Nations-would not have pulled out. If they did, support from "freedom"-loving countries such as the United States would have sent convoys in to stop the slaughter.

But no help came. The Tutsi were left alone to face the genocide. The slaughter lasted for over three months.

How many hundreds of thousands of men, women and children would have been saved had this small country in Africa been deemed worthy of some kind of intervention?

Terry George continuously brings this idea into the film's story as we see agents of various world powers turn their backs on the Rwandans.

This adds to the film's intensity and causes you to not only be tremendously moved by Paul's fight for survival but to become angry that genocide on this level was allowed to occur without help from other nations.

There is a fine supporting cast at work in "Hotel Rwanda." Sophie Okonedo (who was nominated for best supporting actress) plays Paul's Tutsi wife, Nick Nolte plays a frustrated U.N. colonel, a bearded Joaquin Phoenix plays a cameraman and Jean Reno plays a hotelier who Paul enlists for help.

They were nice support but this was Cheadle's film from start to finish and he delivers a controlled, subtle performance that is wonderful to watch.

"Hotel Rwanda" works as a gripping thriller, a story of humanity and as a powerful history lesson on events that took place a decade ago in a region of the world largely ignored. It is anchored by a terrific performance and will likely win no Oscars, but who cares?

"Hotel Rwanda" can claim rightful ownership of the title of most important film this year. Luckily, it's not only important, but it's also very good.
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