The Bridge

Kigali, Rwanda, 1994. Jerry Mmary, a young Tanzanian businessman, and Eva Kagoyire, a gifted Rwandan nurse, are preparing for their wedding when President Habyarimana's plane is shot down. In one hundred days, 800,000 people will be murdered. Their love story becomes a fight for survival. Eva, born of both Hutu and Tutsi heritage, embodies compassion in a nation tearing itself apart. At her clinic in Nyamirambo, she treats everyone equally: "Injury has no ethnicity." But when the genocide begins, her ID card marks her as Tutsi. Her devotion to healing becomes her greatest risk. Jerry's Tanzanian passport should save them both—until soldiers at Rusumo Bridge separate them forever. For ten years, Jerry searches. He scours Red Cross lists, contacts aid organizations, and testifies at the International Criminal Tribunal. Yet Eva's name never appears among survivors. The not-knowing becomes its own form of torture. In 2004, Jerry returns to Kigali for the tenth anniversary commemoration. Through the testimony of three survivors, he learns the truth: Eva died protecting children in Nyarubuye Church. She died being exactly who she was—a healer, a bridge-builder, someone who chose others over herself. Armed with this truth, Jerry makes a decision: he will honor Eva's death by continuing her work. The Eva Kagoyire Foundation begins with a single scholarship. By 2034, it has trained thousands of nurses, opened dozens of clinics, and saved an estimated 800,000 lives—the same number who perished in the genocide. Spanning forty years and three countries, THE BRIDGE is both a love story and a meditation on survivor's guilt, privilege, and the power of memory. It asks what it means to transform grief into purpose, and how love can become the bridge between death and redemption. -