shorts

The Clothes (Help) Make the Man

Audiences get their first look at Quebecois superstar Roy Dupuis as Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire this month, as the dramatization of Dallaire’s book Shake Hands With the Devil hits theatres.

And whether or not moviegoers feel Dupuis managed to capture the essence of the Canadian who presided over UN forces during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, there’s no denying that his uniform is spot on.

That’s because it is Dallaire’s uniform, the one he wore throughout the crisis that saw hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and Hutu moderates killed at the hands of Hutu extremists. While Dallaire famously battled red tape and bureaucracy as scores died, he is credited with saving tens of thousands more.

Joyce Schure, the film’s costume designer, says Dallaire donated not only his summer dress uniform, but also insignia, medals and belts to the shoot because he wanted the movie to be as accurate as possible. “But not his famous blue beret,” notes Schure, “that had been lost along the way.”

Schure had to find the rest of the film’s uniforms at army surplus stores — some as far away as Paris, France — because the UN’s uniforms have changed since the events of the movie.

“Just knowing what [the Lt. Gen.] had gone through and that those items had had a place in time during that tragedy…” begins Schure. “You know, they say personal items that belonged to people carry an energy or a history, so it was with a great deal of reverence and care that I handled them.”

The only part of the uniform that wasn’t used was the shirt; the actor was too big so the insignia were sewn on to a new one. And Schure admits some adjustments had to be made to the rest of the uniform — not so much because the men differ in size, but because, as Schure puts it, military uniforms are “not designed for actors on camera, they’re not necessarily the most flattering cut.” —Marni Weisz