Team Rwanda rides for a better life in the inspirational Rising from Ashes

RISING from Ashes: Be inspired as survivors of the Rwandan massacre became an international cycling force racing all the way to the London Olympics.

Scene from the documentary Rising From Ashes, about the Rwandan cycling team. Curious films.

NARRATED by Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker, Rising From Ashes is a sincerely inspirational documentary about the efforts of two veteran American cyclists to re-establish the sport in the troubled African nation of Rwanda.

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Each rider on Team Rwanda has their own link to the tragedy of 1994.

Filmed over six years, the production has an unassuming, yet powerful way of connecting its audience to a determined group of novice riders rising through the ranks of international cycling.

All of these young men survived the infamous 1994 genocide, which left in excess of a million of their countrymen dead, an event which still haunts Rwanda’s every move on the world stage.

The documentary <i>Rising From Ashes</i> followed the riders’ progress over six years.

Every time a member of Team Rwanda gets on a bike — usually an ancient model that has been plucked from the scrapheap — there is much more at stake than just trophies, fame and lucrative sponsorship endorsements. These unfeasibly resilient fellows are riding for a better life.

In order not to scare off first-world audiences, director T.C. Johnstone initially treads very softly around the subject of the mass killings of ’94.

Each rider on Team Rwanda has their own link to the tragedy, some of them so painful that it is impossible to picture what they must have gone through.

Team Rwanda leader Adrien Niyonshuti made it to the 2012 Olympics.

In one moving sequence, Team Rwanda leader Adrien Niyonshuti — who later went on to represent his country at the 2012 London Olympics — pauses to count how many of his family died or disappeared forever in 1994.

He stops when he gets to 60.

But you get the feeling the number could even be more. Most of his teammates lost parents or siblings as a bare minimum.

A scene from the documentary <i>Rising From Ashes</i>, about the Rwandan cycling team.

The most positive aspect of the documentary is how easy it is to identify the riders’ raw talents improving considerably once they adopt some basic training principles.

Motivation is not a problem. Nor is a lack of decent equipment or habitable accommodation. Team Rwanda just wants to keep moving forward. Long may they continue to do so.

Rising From Ashes

Director: T.C. Johnstone (Hearing Everett)

Starring: Forest Whitaker (narrator).

Verdict: Three-and-a-half stars. Entering and winning a Tour de Chance

Originally published as Team Rwanda rides for a better life in the inspirational Rising from Ashes