Background
For the record, I saw this film under the UK-release titled Shooting Dogs1, and I saw it before I saw Hotel Rwanda. Actually that would have been a better basis for me to review the film on but for better or worse, since then I have actually seen Hotel Rwanda and invariably when I review Beyond the Gates I am obviously drawing oblique comparisons to both films. So I will try in earnest to not make this blog a comparative review but rather focus on Shooting Dogs/Beyond the Gates and why I feel it had such an enormous impact on me2.
So for a while after this movie was released overseas I followed its trail across ti he Atlantic in earnest waiting to see if and when it would get picked up; finally in late 2006 IFC Pictures purchased the US distribution rights and the film was finally released in March 2007.