AFRICAN GENOCIDE SEEN ANOTHER WAY.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

IS ANYONE well served by a dully earnest history lesson, no matter how important the lesson? HBO's ``Sometimes in April'' offers a grislier take on the Rwandan genocide of 1994, recently examined in the surprisingly genteel theatrical release ``Hotel Rwanda.''

Where ``Hotel Rwanda'' focused on one man's heroic attempts to save lives amid the chaos and carnage, ``April'' attempts to give viewers a sense of the wretched insanity that gripped the entire nation. Nearly a million Rwandans were murdered in the span of 100 days while a world paralyzed by shock, inertia and old-fashioned indifference stood by.

Writer-director Raoul Peck sets out to capture the panoply of horrors by attempting to show it on many levels. We watch tragedy through the eyes of the victimized in Augustin, a majority Hutu (Idris Elba of ``The Wire'') whose Tutsi wife is a target, and a schoolteacher (Pamela Nomvete) attempting to protect her students. Augustin's brother, Honore (Oris Erhuero), is a radio personality imploring Hutus to cut down the ``cockroaches,'' yet still attempts to help Augustin's family.

Meanwhile, ineffectual American officials (including one blandly played by Debra Winger) wring their hands but decline to intervene. Sequences of Americans wading through the moral morass are as flat and dispassionate as an episode of the '60s cop show ``Dragnet.'' (To be fair, it's not as if - beyond some hamstrung United Nations peacekeepers - the rest of the planet leapt to the Tutsis' defense.)

Can a filmmaker bring himself to imagine and understand hatred-choked fury enough to credibly depict it? And if so, could anyone stand to watch? It's a moot point here, as Peck's film, despite a smattering of effectively disquieting scenes, is too overwhelmed by the vastness of the evil to delineate characters who might more deeply involve the audience.

Much of the film is languid and pretentious, such as the ponderous narration: ``When did it all begin?'' Elba intones; ``When did paradise become hell?'' As if what follows invites such loftily ersatz poeticism. The music, likewise, veers between lurid melodrama and portentous dudgeon.

Perhaps trying to make sense of such savagery is simple folly. William Vollman, in his epic treatise, ``Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means'' (a relatively svelte 700-page distillation of his original 3,000 pages was recently released), traveled the world's hot spots in order to contextualize cruelty and rebellion. But he essentially threw up his hands in endeavoring to suss out the nuances of the unremitting violence in Africa.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

SOMETIMES IN APRIL - Two and one half stars

What: The 1994 Rwandan genocide is explicated in this tale of two brothers, one whose family is targeted for slaughter and the other a hate-radio conspirator.

Where: HBO.

When: 8 tonight, also 10 p.m. Monday, 11 p.m. March 27, midnight March 30 and 8:30 p.m. April 7.

In a nutshell: Ambitious and sobering yet dramatically tepid.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Idris Elba is a Hutu married to a Tutsi in ``Sometimes in April,'' a chronicle of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.