title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: "Star Trek: Discovery" is filmed at Pinewood Toronto Studios, taking advantage of multiple soundstages at the studio including the largest one in North America. Filming for the series also takes place on location around Ontario, Canada, including at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto to portray the Vulcan Science Academy, the Hilton Falls and Kelso Conservation Areas, the Scarborough Bluffs, the Stelco steel plant in Hamilton, and the disused Kingston Penitentiary. The series spent more than () in Ontario, and created more than 4,000 jobs for local crew, in just its first two seasons. Location filming for the series also took place outside of North America, with some filming in Jordan for the series premiere, and in Iceland for the first two episodes of the third season.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: Kurtzman felt the visual style of the series had to "justify being on a premium cable service", and the producers worked closely with first episode director David Semel to make the series look as cinematic as possible. They took inspiration from the wide scope of "" (1979), including using a 2:1 aspect ratio, as well as from the modern "Star Trek" films directed by J. J. Abrams. The cinematographers wanted to emphasize on-set lighting sources to create a more realistic look and distance the series from the "stage" feel of "The Original Series". The lighting on set could be controlled, including changing their color for when the ship goes into alert mode. Harberts said that the cinematographers wanted the series to have a "Rembrandt texture". For the second season, Kurtzman chose to use anamorphic lenses with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio to "immediately [convey] a sense of scope and scale". He hoped that if the series was projected in a theater it would appear indistinguishable from a feature film. Frequent "Star Trek" director Jonathan Frakes said the series' producing director, Olatunde Osunsanmi, encouraged all of the directors to "express ourselves visually in as exciting a way as possible", with Frakes describing the series' directing style as "shoot to thrill".


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: Paramount+ constructed a video wall to allow for virtual production on the fourth season as well as the spin-off series "", utilizing technology similar to the StageCraft system that was developed for the Disney+ series "The Mandalorian". The new virtual set was built in Toronto by visual effects company Pixomondo, and features a 270-degree, by horseshoe-shaped LED volume with additional LED panels in the ceiling to aid with lighting. The technology uses the game engine software Unreal Engine to display computer-generated backgrounds on the LED screens in real-time during filming. Visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman noted that this was especially useful for creating the planets that are visited in the series since location shooting was limited on the fourth season by the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: Visual effects producers were hired to begin work on the series during the initial writing period, with Fuller explaining that they wanted to develop distinct looks for classic "Star Trek" effects such as digitally-augmented alien species and transporter beams. Pixomondo is the primary visual effects vendor for the series, with other vendors including Spin VFX, Ghost VFX, Mackevision, Crafty Apes, DNEG, The Mill, and FX3X, as well as visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman's in-house team at CBS Studios. Visual effects shots for each episode on "Discovery" typically take eight-to-ten months to complete, and include fully digital environments such as the shuttle bay of "Discovery", digital extensions of sets, shots of the "Discovery" and other starships, digital creatures, holograms, and 32nd century technology such as programmable matter.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: Several composers auditioned for the series, including Charles Henri Avelange, and Fil Eisler whose audition music was used for the series' first teaser. Cliff Eidelman and Austin Wintory were also considered for the role, before Jeff Russo was announced as composer for the series in July 2017. Russo wanted the show's main theme to embody the ideals of "Star Trek" and "a commonality in people" by only using chords that have a common note, with a melody then added over the top. The theme is bookended by elements of the original "Star Trek" theme by Alexander Courage. Russo acknowledged that not all existing "Star Trek" fans were going to appreciate the new theme, but felt that regardless of how it compared to previous themes in the franchise it still accurately represented this series. Russo recorded the series' score with a 60-piece orchestra, initially at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. Studios in California. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians for the third season were recorded individually and their performances combined.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: Individual soundtrack albums for the two chapters of were respectively released on December 15, 2017, and April 6, 2018. A soundtrack album for was released on July 19, 2019, for on April 16, 2021, and for on August 26, 2022.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: The first episode of "Star Trek: Discovery" aired in a "preview broadcast" on CBS in the United States and was made available with the second episode on CBS All Access. The rest of the series' episodes for the first three seasons were released weekly on All Access. CBS Studios International licensed the series to Bell Media for broadcast in Canada, and to Netflix for another 188 countries. In Canada, the premiere was simulcast with CBS on both the CTV Television Network and on the specialty channel CTV Sci-Fi Channel before being streamed on Crave; it was also broadcast in French on the specialty channel Z. Subsequent episodes are released through CTV Sci-Fi Channel, Z, and Crave, with CTV Sci-Fi airing each episode 30 minutes before it's streamed on All Access. In the other countries, Netflix released each episode of the first three seasons for streaming within 24 hours of its U.S. debut. This agreement also saw Bell Media and Netflix acquire all previous "Star Trek" series to stream and broadcast at the time.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: In September 2020, ViacomCBS announced that CBS All Access would be expanded and rebranded as Paramount+ in March 2021. Existing episodes of "Discovery"s first three seasons remained on Paramount+ along with future seasons of the series. On November 2, 2021, a home media box set collecting the first three seasons was released, with more than eight hours of special features including behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted and extended scenes, audio commentaries, and gag reels. On November 17, two days before the fourth season's international debut, ViacomCBS announced that it had bought back the international streaming rights to "Discovery" from Netflix effective immediately. The deal was for an undisclosed amount of money that was reported to be in the six-figure range, and meant that Netflix would no longer contribute to the series' budget as it had been doing since the original international licensing deal in July 2016. Because of the deal, the fourth season was set be streamed in countries outside of North America on Paramount+ once the service was available there some time in 2022. Following backlash from international fans, ViacomCBS made the season available internationally through several avenues.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: According to Nielsen Media Research, the CBS broadcast of the first episode was watched by a "decent" audience of 9.5 million viewers. The premiere of the series led to record subscriptions for CBS All Access, with the service having its biggest day of signups, as well as its biggest week and month of signups thanks to the series. According to "app analytics specialist" App Annie, the premiere of the series also caused the number of downloads of the All Access mobile app to more than double, with revenue from the app for CBS doubling compared to the average in-app revenue during the previous 30 days. Increased subscribers for All Access was given as one of the reasons behind the series' second and third season renewals. Audience demand analytics company Parrot Analytics estimates streaming viewership based on global "demand expressions", with the "desire, engagement, and viewership weighted by importance". In the company's list of the top 20 most in-demand streaming series of 2020, "Discovery" was ranked 12th and was the highest ranked All Access series for the year.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: In the first week of Paramount+'s launch in March 2021, JustWatch, a guide to streaming content with access to data from more than 20 million users around the world, estimated that "Star Trek: Discovery" was the most in-demand series on the new service. In December 2021, Paramount+ revealed that "Discovery" was the most watched series on the streaming service for its inaugural year. Parrot Analytics listed the series as the 15th most in-demand streaming series of 2021, the only Paramount+ series in their top 20 list for the year.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: "Star Trek: Discovery" has an 86% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, while Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, has assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on reviews from 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: For the first season, Rotten Tomatoes reported an 82% approval score with an average rating of 7/10 based on 371 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Although it takes an episode to achieve liftoff, "Star Trek: Discovery" delivers a solid franchise installment for the next generation—boldly led by the charismatic Sonequa Martin-Green." Metacritic assigned a score of 72 out of 100 based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Rotten Tomatoes reported an 81% approval score for the second season, with an average rating of 7.3/10 based on 208 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "The second season of "Discovery" successfully—if stubbornly—cleans up the problematic storylines of "Trek" past while still effectively dramatizing new takes on the lore." Metacritic assigned a score of 72 out of 100 based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval score for the third season, with an average rating of 7.7/10 based on 33 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "With less canonical baggage and a welcome dose of character development, "Discovery" continues to forge its own path and is narratively all the better for it." Metacritic assigned a score of 75 out of 100 based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". For the fourth season, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval score with an average rating of 8.10/10 based on 13 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Michael Burnham finally comes into her own—and so does "Discovery"—in a confident fourth season that embraces the series' more heartfelt take on the "Star Trek" mythos."


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: In June 2020, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar named "Star Trek: Discovery" as one of the six best "morale-boosting TV dramas for people of color" for being the most consciously diverse "Star Trek" series and for featuring people of color as role models. The second, third, and fourth seasons all received the ReFrame Stamp, which is awarded by the gender equity coalition ReFrame as a "mark of distinction" for film and television projects that are proven to have gender-balanced hiring, with stamps being awarded to projects that hire female-identifying people, especially those of color, in four out of eight critical areas of their production.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: In August 2018, Egyptian video game developer Anas Abdin announced that he would sue CBS for allegedly copying elements of his unreleased video game "Tardigrades", including large tardigrades that help humans travel through the universe instantly, and similar characters. The lawsuit was dismissed by Judge Lorna G. Schofield in September 2019, finding that the series and video game were not "substantially similar as a matter of law", and that the only similarities were the space setting and the use of alien tardigrades. Abdin appealed this dismissal, but the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld Schofield's decision in August 2020.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: In September 2016, "Discovery" writer Kirsten Beyer announced that CBS was working with IDW Publishing and Simon & Schuster to produce more content revolving around the setting of the series, starting with at least one novel and a comic book. Beyer, the writer of many , explained that she would work with fellow "Star Trek" novelist David Mack and "Star Trek" comic writer Mike Johnson to ensure that all media "are coming from the same place". The release of the books and comics was set to coincide with the series' premiere. Mack described writing around the continuity of "Discovery" as "tricky to get right", as the time period is "light on detail and almost unique within the "Star Trek" continuity. That made it a challenge to represent that era faithfully while also staying true to the new elements being introduced" in the series. Beyer explained in August 2017 that the novels and comics would tell stories that the series did not have time to address but that enhanced the overall story for fans, though they would not be required reading to understand the series. She said the writers of the tie-in works and the series' writers room would work together to not contradict each other, but if an idea was developed for the series that did not work with something established in a tie-in then the series would take priority.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: By August 2017, hours of "Discovery"-based content was set to be added to the video game "Star Trek Timelines", including introducing Michael Burnham and Saru as new crew members for the game and new ships from the show, Federation and otherwise. A month-long "Mega-Event" based on the series was run in the game to coincide with the series' premiere. In July 2018, a tie-in for the game "Star Trek Online" was announced titled "Age of Discovery". Set during the first season of the series, the event introduces a story set on the USS "Glenn" and includes the character Sylvia Tilly. Wiseman returned to voice the character. Other elements inspired by the series included new starship and Klingon designs. In January 2020, Martin-Green was set to voice Burnham for "Star Trek Online"s "Legacy" expansion celebrating 10 years of the game.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: CBS announced an official aftershow series for "Discovery" in 2017. Titled "After Trek", it is similar to AMC's "Talking Dead", a companion to "The Walking Dead", and was hosted by Matt Mira. The series aired after each episode of "Discovery", and featured a rotating panel of guests including cast and crew members from "Discovery", former "Star Trek" actors, and celebrity Trekkies. It was produced by Embassy Row and Roddenberry Entertainment.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: CBS announced in June 2018 that "After Trek" would be re-imagined for the second season of "Discovery". It was replaced with a new interview-style aftershow named "The Ready Room", hosted by Naomi Kyle, which streamed weekly on Facebook Live. "Star Trek: The Next Generation" actor Wil Wheaton took over as host of "The Ready Room" for "Discovery" with its third season.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner of "Discovery", Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the "Star Trek" franchise beyond "Discovery" to several new series, miniseries, and animated series. Kurtzman wanted to "open this world up" and create multiple series set in the same universe but with their own distinct identities, an approach that he compared to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). He added that he would "weigh in meaningfully and significantly at all the critical junctures" for each new series. CBS and Kurtzman began referring to the expanded franchise as the ""Star Trek" Universe" at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, and monthly meetings with the showrunners of each new series were being held by April 2021 to allow coordination between the different series and ensure that "they're not stepping on each other's toes", according to Kurtzman.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: In addition to "", "", and "", the expanded franchise includes several direct spin-offs from "Star Trek: Discovery":


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: Kurtzman announced in July 2018 that a companion series of shorts would be released between the seasons of "Discovery" to "deliver closed-ended stories while revealing clues about what's to come in future "Star Trek: Discovery" episodes. They'll also introduce audiences to new characters who may inhabit the larger world of "Star Trek"."


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: After Mount left "Discovery" following the second-season finale, fans began calling for him to reprise his role of Christopher Pike in a spin-off set on the USS "Enterprise", alongside Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Spock. Kurtzman confirmed that development on such a series had begun in January 2020, and Paramount+ ordered the spin-off, titled "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", in May 2020.


title: Star Trek: Discovery

text: By November 2018, Michelle Yeoh was in talks with CBS to star in a spin-off series as her character Philippa Georgiou, with the series expected to follow her adventures as a member of the secretive organization Section 31. "Discovery" writers Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt were set as writers and showrunners of the new series in January 2019. Kurtzman said filming on the spin-off would begin once filming on the third season of "Discovery" was completed, but production on the spin-off was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgiou is written out of "Discovery" in the third season to set-up the spin-off. In February 2021, Kurtzman said there was still conversations taking place about making the series, but it was unlikely to be added to Paramount+'s "Star Trek" Universe slate until one of the existing five series came to an end. In February 2022, Kurtzman said the spin-off was still in development and his team were planning "Star Trek" series that would be released two or three years later. The series was expected to get a pickup from Paramount+ soon after.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda (; ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is highly elevated, giving it the soubriquet "land of a thousand hills", with its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the southeast, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year. Rwanda has a population of over 12.6 million living on of land, and is the most densely populated mainland African country; among countries larger than 10,000 km, it is the fifth most densely populated country in the world. One million people live in the capital and largest city Kigali.


title: Rwanda

text: Hunter-gatherers settled the territory in the Stone and Iron Ages, followed later by Bantu peoples. The population coalesced first into clans, and then, into kingdoms. In the 15th century, one kingdom, under King Gihanga, managed to incorporate several of its close neighbor territories establishing the Kingdom of Rwanda. The Kingdom of Rwanda dominated from the mid-eighteen century, with the Tutsi kings conquering others militarily, centralising power, and enacting anti-Hutu policies. In 1897, Germany colonized Rwanda as part of German East Africa, followed by Belgium, which took control in 1916 during World War I. Both European nations ruled through the Rwandan king and perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy. The Hutu population revolted in 1959. They massacred numerous Tutsi and ultimately established an independent, Hutu-dominated republic in 1962 led by President Grégoire Kayibanda. A 1973 military coup overthrew Kayibanda and brought Juvénal Habyarimana to power, who retained the pro-Hutu policy. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a civil war in 1990. Habyarimana was assassinated in April 1994. Social tensions erupted in the Rwandan genocide that followed, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu in the span of one hundred days. The RPF ended the genocide with a military victory in July 1994.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda has been governed as a unitary presidential system with a bicameral parliament ruled by the Rwandan Patriotic Front since 1994. The country has been governed by a centralized authoritarian government, since precolonial times. Although Rwanda has low levels of corruption compared with neighbouring countries, it ranks among the lowest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties and quality of life. The population is young and predominantly rural; Rwanda has one of the youngest populations in the world. Rwandans are drawn from just one cultural and linguistic group, the Banyarwanda. However, within this group there are three subgroups: the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Twa are a forest-dwelling pygmy people and are often considered descendants of Rwanda's earliest inhabitants. Christianity is the largest religion in the country; the principal and national language is Kinyarwanda, spoken by native Rwandans, with English, French and Swahili serving as additional official languages.


title: Rwanda

text: The economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture. Coffee and tea are the major cash crops for export. Tourism is a fast-growing sector and is now the country's leading foreign exchange earner. In the 21st century, Rwanda has been described as an emerging tech hub for Africa, with an increase of start-up companies. The country is a member of the African Union, the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, COMESA, OIF and the East African Community. In June 2022, the country hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) originally scheduled for 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Rwanda

text: Modern human settlement of what is now Rwanda dates from, at the latest, the last glacial period, either in the Neolithic period around 8000 BC, or in the long humid period which followed, up to around 3000 BC. Archaeological excavations have revealed evidence of sparse settlement by hunter-gatherers in the late Stone Age, followed by a larger population of early Iron Age settlers, who produced dimpled pottery and iron tools. These early inhabitants were the ancestors of the Twa, aboriginal pygmy hunter-gatherers who remain in Rwanda today. Between 700 BC and 1500 AD, a number of Bantu groups migrated into Rwanda, clearing forest land for agriculture. The forest-dwelling Twa lost much of their habitat and moved to the mountain slopes. Historians have several theories regarding the nature of the Bantu migrations; one theory is that the first settlers were Hutu, while the Tutsi migrated later to form a distinct racial group, possibly of Nilo-hamitic origin. An alternative theory is that the migration was slow and steady, with incoming groups integrating into rather than conquering the existing society. Under this theory, the Hutu and Tutsi distinction arose later and was a class distinction rather than a racial one.


title: Rwanda

text: The earliest form of social organisation in the area was the clan ("ubwoko"). The clans were not limited to genealogical lineages or geographical area, and most included Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. From the 15th century, the clans began to merge into kingdoms. One kingdom, under King Gihanga, managed to incorporate several of its close neighbor territories establishing the Kingdom of Rwanda. By 1700, around eight kingdoms had existed in the present-day Rwanda. One of these, the Kingdom of Rwanda ruled by the Tutsi Nyiginya clan, became increasingly dominant from the mid-eighteenth century. The kingdom reached its greatest extent during the nineteenth century under the reign of King Kigeli Rwabugiri. Rwabugiri conquered several smaller states, expanded the kingdom west and north, and initiated administrative reforms; these included , in which Tutsi patrons ceded cattle, and therefore privileged status, to Hutu or Tutsi clients in exchange for economic and personal service, and , a corvée system in which Hutu were forced to work for Tutsi chiefs. Rwabugiri's changes caused a rift to grow between the Hutu and Tutsi populations. The Twa were better off than in pre-Kingdom days, with some becoming dancers in the royal court, but their numbers continued to decline.


title: Rwanda

text: The Berlin Conference of 1884 assigned the territory to the German Empire, who declared it as part of the German East Africa. In 1894, explorer Gustav Adolf von Götzen was the first European to cross the entire territory of Rwanda, he crossed from the south-east to Lake Kivu and met the king. In 1897, Germany established a presence in Rwanda with the formation of an alliance with the king, beginning the colonial era. The Germans did not significantly alter the social structure of the country, but exerted influence by supporting the king and the existing hierarchy, and delegating power to local chiefs. Belgian forces invaded Rwanda and Burundi in 1916, during World War I, and later, in 1922, they started to rule both Rwanda and Burundi as a League of Nations mandate called Ruanda-Urundi and started a period of more direct colonial rule The Belgians simplified and centralised the power structure, introduced large-scale projects in education, health, public works, and agricultural supervision, including new crops and improved agricultural techniques to try to reduce the incidence of famine. Both the Germans and the Belgians, in the wake of New Imperialism, promoted Tutsi supremacy, considering the Hutu and Tutsi different races. In 1935, Belgium introduced an identity card system, which labelled each individual as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or Naturalised. While it had been previously possible for particularly wealthy Hutu to become honorary Tutsi, the identity cards prevented any further movement between the classes.


title: Rwanda

text: Belgium continued to rule Ruanda-Urundi (of which Rwanda formed the northern part) as a UN trust territory after the Second World War, with a mandate to oversee eventual independence. Tensions escalated between the Tutsi, who favoured early independence, and the Hutu emancipation movement, culminating in the 1959 Rwandan Revolution: Hutu activists began killing Tutsi and destroying their houses, forcing more than 100,000 people to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. In 1961, the suddenly pro-Hutu Belgians held a referendum in which the country voted to abolish the monarchy. Rwanda was separated from Burundi and gained independence on 1 July 1962, which is commemorated as Independence Day, a national holiday. Cycles of violence followed, with exiled Tutsi attacking from neighbouring countries and the Hutu retaliating with large-scale slaughter and repression of the Tutsi. In 1973, Juvénal Habyarimana took power in a military coup. Pro-Hutu discrimination continued, but there was greater economic prosperity and a reduced amount of violence against Tutsi. The Twa remained marginalised, and by 1990 were almost entirely forced out of the forests by the government; many became beggars. Rwanda's population had increased from 1.6 million people in 1934 to 7.1 million in 1989, leading to competition for land.


title: Rwanda

text: In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed of nearly 500,000 Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from their base in Uganda, initiating the Rwandan Civil War. The group condemned the Hutu-dominated government for failing to democratize and confront the problems facing these refugees. Neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage in the war, but by 1992 it had weakened Habyarimana's authority; mass demonstrations forced him into a coalition with the domestic opposition and eventually to sign the 1993 Arusha Accords with the RPF. The cease-fire ended on 6 April 1994 when Habyarimana's plane was shot down near Kigali Airport, killing him. The shooting down of the plane served as the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide, which began within a few hours. Over the course of approximately 100 days, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed in well-planned attacks on the orders of the interim government. Many Twa were also killed, despite not being directly targeted.


title: Rwanda

text: The Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive, and took control of the country methodically, gaining control of the whole country by mid-July. The international response to the genocide was limited, with major powers reluctant to strengthen the already overstretched UN peacekeeping force. When the RPF took over, approximately two million Hutu fled to neighbouring countries, in particular Zaïre, fearing reprisals; additionally, the RPF-led army was a key belligerent in the First and Second Congo Wars. Within Rwanda, a period of reconciliation and justice began, with the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the reintroduction of , a traditional village court system. Since 2000 Rwanda's economy, tourist numbers, and Human Development Index have grown rapidly; between 2006 and 2011 the poverty rate reduced from 57% to 45%, while life expectancy rose from 46.6 years in 2000 to 65.4 years in 2021.


title: Rwanda

text: The president of Rwanda is the head of state, and has broad powers including creating policy in conjunction with the Cabinet of Rwanda, exercising the prerogative of mercy, commanding the armed forces, negotiating and ratifying treaties, signing presidential orders, and declaring war or a state of emergency. The president is elected by popular vote every seven years, and appoints the prime minister and all other members of the Cabinet. The incumbent president is Paul Kagame, who took office upon the resignation of his predecessor, Pasteur Bizimungu, in 2000. Kagame subsequently won elections in 2003 and 2010. Although human rights organisations have criticised these elections as being "marked by increasing political repression and a crackdown on free speech". Article 101 of the constitution had previously limited presidents to two terms in office, but this was changed in a 2015 referendum, which had been brought following receipt of a petition signed by 3.8 million Rwandans. Through this change in the constitution, Kagame could stay on as president until 2034. Kagame was elected for a third term in 2017 with 98.79% of the vote.


title: Rwanda

text: The constitution was adopted following a national referendum in 2003, replacing the transitional constitution which had been in place since 1994. The constitution mandates a multi-party system of government, with politics based on democracy and elections. However, the constitution places conditions on how political parties may operate. Article 54 states that "political organizations are prohibited from basing themselves on race, ethnic group, tribe, clan, region, sex, religion or any other division which may give rise to discrimination". The government has also enacted laws criminalising genocide ideology, which can include intimidation, defamatory speeches, genocide denial and mocking of victims. According to Human Rights Watch, these laws effectively make Rwanda a one-party state, as "under the guise of preventing another genocide, the government displays a marked intolerance of the most basic forms of dissent". Amnesty International is also critical; in its 2014/15 report, Amnesty said that laws against inciting insurrection or trouble among the population had been used to imprison people "for the legitimate exercise of their rights to freedom of association or of expression".


title: Rwanda

text: The Parliament consists of two chambers. It makes legislation and is empowered by the constitution to oversee the activities of the president and the Cabinet. The lower chamber is the Chamber of Deputies, which has 80 members serving five-year terms. Twenty-four of these seats are reserved for women, elected through a joint assembly of local government officials; another three seats are reserved for youth and disabled members; the remaining 53 are elected by universal suffrage under a proportional representation system. Following the 2018 election, there are 49 female deputies, down from 51 in 2013; , Rwanda is one of only three countries with a female majority in the national parliament. The upper chamber is the 26-seat Senate, whose members are selected by a variety of bodies. A mandatory minimum of 30% of the senators are women. Senators serve eight-year terms. (See also Gender equality in Rwanda.)


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda's legal system is largely based on German and Belgian civil law systems and customary law. The judiciary is independent of the executive branch, although the president and the Senate are involved in the appointment of Supreme Court judges. Human Rights Watch have praised the Rwandan government for progress made in the delivery of justice including the abolition of the death penalty, but also allege interference in the judicial system by members of the government, such as the politically motivated appointment of judges, misuse of prosecutorial power, and pressure on judges to make particular decisions. The constitution provides for two types of courts: ordinary and specialised. Ordinary courts are the Supreme Court, the High Court, and regional courts, while specialised courts are military courts and a system of commercial courts created in 2011 to expedite commercial litigations. Between 2004 and 2012, a system of "Gacaca" courts was in operation. , a Rwandan traditional court operated by villages and communities, was revived to expedite the trials of genocide suspects. The court succeeded in clearing the backlog of genocide cases, but was criticised by human rights groups as not meeting legal fair standard.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda has low corruption levels relative to most other African countries; in 2014, Transparency International ranked Rwanda as the fifth cleanest out of 47 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and 55th cleanest out of 175 in the world. The constitution provides for an ombudsman, whose duties include prevention and fighting of corruption. Public officials (including the president) are required by the constitution to declare their wealth to the ombudsman and to the public; those who do not comply are suspended from office. Despite this, Human Rights Watch notes extensive political repression throughout the country, including illegal and arbitrary detention, threats or other forms of intimidation, disappearances, politically motivated trials, and the massacre of peacefully protesting civilians.


title: Rwanda

text: The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has been the dominant political party in the country since 1994. The RPF has maintained control of the presidency and the Parliament in national elections, with the party's vote share consistently exceeding 70%. The RPF is seen as a Tutsi-dominated party but receives support from across the country, and is credited with ensuring continued peace, stability, and economic growth. According to human rights organisation Freedom House 2015 report the government has been suppressing the freedoms of opposition groups in that the RPF had "prevented new political parties from registering and arrested the leaders of several existing parties, effectively preventing them from fielding candidates" in elections. Amnesty International also claims that the RPF rules Rwanda "without any meaningful opposition".


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda is a member of the United Nations, African Union, Francophonie, East African Community, and the Commonwealth of Nations. For many years during the Habyarimana regime, the country maintained close ties with France, as well as Belgium, the former colonial power. Under the RPF government, however, Rwanda has sought closer ties with neighbouring countries in the East African Community and with the English-speaking world. Diplomatic relations with France were suspended in 2006 following the indictment of Rwandan officials by a French judge, and despite their restoration in 2010, relations between the countries remain strained. Relations with the Democratic Republic of the Congo were tense following Rwanda's involvement in the First and Second Congo Wars; the Congolese army alleged Rwandan attacks on their troops, while Rwanda blamed the Congolese government for failing to suppress Hutu rebels in North and South Kivu provinces. In 2010, the United Nations released a report accusing the Rwandan army of committing wide scale human rights violations and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the First and Second Congo Wars, charges denied by the Rwandan government. Relations soured further in 2012, as Kinshasa accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion, an insurgency in the eastern Congo. , peace has been restored and relations are improving. Rwanda's relationship with Uganda was also tense for much of the 2000s following a 1999 clash between the two countries' armies as they backed opposing rebel groups in the Second Congo War, but improved significantly in the early 2010s. In 2019, relations between the two countries deteriorated, with Rwanda closing its borders with Uganda.


title: Rwanda

text: Before western colonization, the Rwandan government system had a quasi-system of political pluralism and power sharing. Despite there being a strict hierarchy, the pre-colonial system achieved an established, combined system of “centralized power and decentralized autonomous units.” Under the monarch, the elected Chief governed a province that was divided into multiple districts. Two other officials appointed by head Chief governed the districts; one official was allocated power over the land while the other oversaw cattle. The king () exercised control through a system of provinces, districts, hills, and neighbourhoods.


title: Rwanda

text: As of 2003, the constitution divided Rwanda into provinces (), districts (), cities, municipalities, towns, sectors (), cells (), and villages (); the larger divisions, and their borders, are established by Parliament. In January 2006, Rwanda was reorganized such that twelve provinces were merged to create five, and 106 districts were merged into thirty. The present borders drawn in 2006 aimed át decentralising power and removing associations with the old system and the genocide. The previous structure of twelve provinces associated with the largest cities was replaced with five provinces based primarily on geography. These are Northern Province, Southern Province, Eastern Province, Western Province, and the Municipality of Kigali in the centre.


title: Rwanda

text: The five provinces act as intermediaries between the national government and their constituent districts to ensure that national policies are implemented at the district level. The Rwanda Decentralisation Strategic Framework developed by the Ministry of Local Government assigns to provinces the responsibility for "coordinating governance issues in the Province, as well as monitoring and evaluation". Each province is headed by a governor, appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The districts are responsible for coordinating public service delivery and economic development. They are divided into sectors, which are responsible for the delivery of public services as mandated by the districts. Districts and sectors have directly elected councils, and are run by an executive committee selected by that council. The cells and villages are the smallest political units, providing a link between the people and the sectors. All adult resident citizens are members of their local cell council, from which an executive committee is elected. The city of Kigali is a provincial-level authority, which coordinates urban planning within the city.


title: Rwanda

text: At , Rwanda is the world's 149th-largest country, and the fourth smallest on the African mainland after Gambia, Eswatini, and Djibouti. It is comparable in size to Burundi, Haiti and Albania. The entire country is at a high altitude: the lowest point is the Rusizi River at above sea level. Rwanda is located in Central/Eastern Africa, and is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, and Burundi to the south. It lies a few degrees south of the equator and is landlocked. The capital, Kigali, is located near the centre of Rwanda.


title: Rwanda

text: The watershed between the major Congo and Nile drainage basins runs from north to south through Rwanda, with around 80% of the country's area draining into the Nile and 20% into the Congo via the Rusizi River and Lake Tanganyika. The country's longest river is the Nyabarongo, which rises in the south-west, flows north, east, and southeast before merging with the Ruvubu to form the Kagera; the Kagera then flows due north along the eastern border with Tanzania. The Nyabarongo-Kagera eventually drains into Lake Victoria, and its source in Nyungwe Forest is a contender for the as-yet undetermined overall source of the Nile. Rwanda has many lakes, the largest being Lake Kivu. This lake occupies the floor of the Albertine Rift along most of the length of Rwanda's western border, and with a maximum depth of , it is one of the twenty deepest lakes in the world. Other sizeable lakes include Burera, Ruhondo, Muhazi, Rweru, and Ihema, the last being the largest of a string of lakes in the eastern plains of Akagera National Park.


title: Rwanda

text: Mountains dominate central and western Rwanda and the country is sometimes called "" in French ("Land of a thousand hills"). They are part of the Albertine Rift Mountains that flank the Albertine branch of the East African Rift, which runs from north to south along Rwanda's western border. The highest peaks are found in the Virunga volcano chain in the northwest; this includes Mount Karisimbi, Rwanda's highest point, at . This western section of the country lies within the Albertine Rift montane forests ecoregion. It has an elevation of . The centre of the country is predominantly rolling hills, while the eastern border region consists of savanna, plains and swamps.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda has a temperate tropical highland climate, with lower temperatures than are typical for equatorial countries because of its high elevation. Kigali, in the centre of the country, has a typical daily temperature range between , with little variation through the year. There are some temperature variations across the country; the mountainous west and north are generally cooler than the lower-lying east. There are two rainy seasons in the year; the first runs from February to June and the second from September to December. These are separated by two dry seasons: the major one from June to September, during which there is often no rain at all, and a shorter and less severe one from December to February. Rainfall varies geographically, with the west and northwest of the country receiving more precipitation annually than the east and southeast. Global warming has caused a change in the pattern of the rainy seasons. According to a report by the Strategic Foresight Group, change in climate has reduced the number of rainy days experienced during a year, but has also caused an increase in frequency of torrential rains. Both changes have caused difficulty for farmers, decreasing their productivity. Strategic Foresight also characterise Rwanda as a fast warming country, with an increase in average temperature of between 0.7 °C to 0.9 °C over fifty years.


title: Rwanda

text: In prehistoric times montane forest occupied one-third of the territory of present-day Rwanda. Naturally occurring vegetation is now mostly restricted to the three national parks, with terraced agriculture dominating the rest of the country. Nyungwe, the largest remaining tract of forest, contains 200 species of tree as well as orchids and begonias. Vegetation in the Volcanoes National Park is mostly bamboo and moorland, with small areas of forest. By contrast, Akagera has a savanna ecosystem in which acacia dominates the flora. There are several rare or endangered plant species in Akagera, including "Markhamia lutea" and "Eulophia guineensis".


title: Rwanda

text: The greatest diversity of large mammals is found in the three national parks, which are designated conservation areas. Akagera contains typical savanna animals such as giraffes and elephants, while Volcanoes is home to an estimated one-third of the worldwide mountain gorilla population. Nyungwe Forest boasts thirteen primate species including common chimpanzees and Ruwenzori colobus arboreal monkeys; the Ruwenzori colobus move in groups of up to 400 individuals, the largest troop size of any primate in Africa.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda's population of lions was destroyed in the aftermath of the genocide of 1994, as national parks were turned into camps for displaced people and remaining animals were poisoned by cattle herders. In June 2015, two South African parks donated seven lions to Akagera National Park, reestablishing a lion population in Rwanda. The lions were held initially in a fenced off area of the park, and then collared and released into the wild a month later.


title: Rwanda

text: Eighteen endangered black rhino were brought to Rwanda in 2017 from South Africa The animals adapted very well so in 2019, five more black rhinos were delivered to Akagera National Park from zoos all over Europe.


title: Rwanda

text: Similarly, the white rhino population is growing in Rwanda. In 2021, Rwanda received 30 white rhino from South Africa with the goal of Akagera being a safe breeding ground for the near threatened species.


title: Rwanda

text: There are 670 bird species in Rwanda, with variation between the east and the west. Nyungwe Forest, in the west, has 280 recorded species, of which 26 are endemic to the Albertine Rift; endemic species include the Rwenzori turaco and handsome spurfowl. Eastern Rwanda, by contrast, features savanna birds such as the black-headed gonolek and those associated with swamps and lakes, including storks and cranes.


title: Rwanda

text: Recent entomological work in the country has revealed a rich diversity of praying mantises, including a new species "Dystacta tigrifrutex", dubbed the "bush tiger mantis".


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda contains three terrestrial ecoregions: Albertine Rift montane forests, Victoria Basin forest-savanna mosaic, and Ruwenzori-Virunga montane moorlands. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 3.85/10, ranking it 139th globally out of 172 countries.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda's economy suffered heavily during the 1994 genocide, with widespread loss of life, failure to maintain infrastructure, looting, and neglect of important cash crops. This caused a large drop in GDP and destroyed the country's ability to attract private and external investment. The economy has since strengthened, with per-capita nominal GDP estimated at $909.9 in 2022, compared with $127 in 1994. Major export markets include China, Germany, and the United States. The economy is managed by the central National Bank of Rwanda and the currency is the Rwandan franc; in December 2019, the exchange rate was 910 francs to one United States dollar. Rwanda joined the East African Community in 2007, and has ratified a plan for monetary union amongst the seven member nations, which could eventually lead to a common East African shilling.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda is a country of few natural resources, and the economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture by local farmers using simple tools. An estimated 90% of the working population farms, and agriculture constituted an estimated 32.5% of GDP in 2014. Farming techniques are basic, with small plots of land and steep slopes. Since the mid-1980s, farm sizes and food production have been decreasing, due in part to the resettlement of displaced people. Despite Rwanda's fertile ecosystem, food production often does not keep pace with population growth, and food imports are required,But in recent years, with the growth of agriculture, the situation has improved.


title: Rwanda

text: Subsistence crops grown in the country include matoke (green bananas), which occupy more than a third of the country's farmland, potatoes, beans, sweet potatoes, cassava, wheat and maize. Coffee and tea are the major cash crops for export, with the high altitudes, steep slopes and volcanic soils providing favourable conditions. Reports have established that more than 400,000 Rwandans make their living from coffee plantation. Reliance on agricultural exports makes Rwanda vulnerable to shifts in their prices. Animals raised in Rwanda include cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chicken, and rabbits, with geographical variation in the numbers of each. Production systems are mostly traditional, although there are a few intensive dairy farms around Kigali. Shortages of land and water, insufficient and poor-quality feed, and regular disease epidemics with insufficient veterinary services are major constraints that restrict output. Fishing takes place on the country's lakes, but stocks are very depleted, and live fish are being imported in an attempt to revive the industry.


title: Rwanda

text: The industrial sector is small, contributing 14.8% of GDP in 2014. Products manufactured include cement, agricultural products, small-scale beverages, soap, furniture, shoes, plastic goods, textiles and cigarettes. Rwanda's mining industry is an important contributor, generating US$93 million in 2008. Minerals mined include cassiterite, wolframite, gold, and coltan, which is used in the manufacture of electronic and communication devices such as mobile phones.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda's service sector suffered during the late-2000s recession as bank lending, foreign aid projects and investment were reduced. The sector rebounded in 2010, becoming the country's largest sector by economic output and contributing 43.6% of the country's GDP. Key tertiary contributors include banking and finance, wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants, transport, storage, communication, insurance, real estate, business services and public administration including education and health. Tourism is one of the fastest-growing economic resources and became the country's leading foreign exchange earner in 2007. In spite of the genocide's legacy, the country is increasingly perceived internationally as a safe destination. The number of tourist arrivals in 2013 was 864,000 people, up from 504,000 in 2010. Revenue from tourism was US$303 million in 2014, up from just US$62 million in 2000. The largest contributor to this revenue was mountain gorilla tracking, in the Volcanoes National Park; Rwanda is one of only three countries in which mountain gorillas can be visited safely; the gorillas attract thousands of visitors per year, who are prepared to pay high prices for permits. Other attractions include Nyungwe Forest, home to chimpanzees, Ruwenzori colobus and other primates, the resorts of Lake Kivu, and Akagera, a small savanna reserve in the east of the country.


title: Rwanda

text: The largest radio and television stations are state-run, and the majority of newspapers are owned by the government. Most Rwandans have access to radio; during the 1994 genocide, the radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines broadcast across the country, and helped to fuel the killings through anti-Tutsi propaganda. , the state-run Radio Rwanda is the largest station and the main source of news throughout the country. Television access is limited, with most homes not having their own set. The government rolled out digital television in 2014, and a year later there were seven national stations operating, up from just one in the pre-2014 analogue era. The press is tightly restricted, and newspapers routinely self-censor to avoid government reprisals. Nonetheless, publications in Kinyarwanda, English, and French critical of the government are widely available in Kigali. Restrictions were increased in the run-up to the Rwandan presidential election of 2010, with two independent newspapers, "Umuseso" and "Umuvugizi", being suspended for six months by the High Media Council.


title: Rwanda

text: The country's oldest telecommunications group, Rwandatel, went into liquidation in 2011, having been 80% owned by Libyan company LAP Green. The company was acquired in 2013 by Liquid Telecom, a company providing telecommunications and fibre optic networks across eastern and southern Africa. , Liquid Telecom provides landline service to 30,968 subscribers, with mobile operator MTN Rwanda serving an additional 15,497 fixed line subscribers. Landlines are mostly used by government institutions, banks, NGOs and embassies, with private subscription levels low. , mobile phone penetration in the country is 72.6%, up from 41.6% in 2011. MTN Rwanda is the leading provider, with 3,957,986 subscribers, followed by Tigo with 2,887,328, and Bharti Airtel with 1,336,679. Rwandatel has also previously operated a mobile phone network, but the industry regulator revoked its licence in April 2011, following the company's failure to meet agreed investment commitments. Internet penetration is low but rising rapidly; in 2015 there were 12.8 internet users per 100 people, up from 2.1 in 2007. In 2011, a fibre-optic telecommunications network was completed, intended to provide broadband services and facilitate electronic commerce. This network is connected to SEACOM, a submarine fibre-optic cable connecting communication carriers in southern and eastern Africa. Within Rwanda the cables run along major roads, linking towns around the country. Mobile provider MTN also runs a wireless internet service accessible in most areas of Kigali via pre-paid subscription.


title: Rwanda

text: The Rwandan government prioritised funding of water supply development during the 2000s, significantly increasing its share of the national budget. This funding, along with donor support, caused a rapid increase in access to safe water; in 2015, 74% of the population had access to safe water, up from about 55% in 2005; the government has committed to increasing this to 100% by 2017. The country's water infrastructure consists of urban and rural systems that deliver water to the public, mainly through standpipes in rural areas and private connections in urban areas. In areas not served by these systems, hand pumps and managed springs are used. Despite rainfall exceeding annually in most of the country, little use is made of rainwater harvesting, and residents are forced to use water very sparingly, relative to usage in other African countries. Access to sanitation remains low; the United Nations estimates that in 2006, 34% of urban and 20% of rural dwellers had access to improved sanitation. Kigali is one of the cleanest cities in Africa. Government policy measures to improve sanitation are limited, focusing only on urban areas. The majority of the population, both urban and rural, use public shared pit latrines.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda's electricity supply was, until the early 2000s, generated almost entirely from hydroelectric sources; power stations on Lakes Burera and Ruhondo provided 90% of the country's electricity. A combination of below average rainfall and human activity, including the draining of the Rugezi wetlands for cultivation and grazing, caused the two lakes' water levels to fall from 1990 onwards; by 2004 levels were reduced by 50%, leading to a sharp drop in output from the power stations. This, coupled with increased demand as the economy grew, precipitated a shortfall in 2004 and widespread loadshedding. As an emergency measure, the government installed diesel generators north of Kigali; by 2006 these were providing 56% of the country's electricity, but were very costly. The government enacted a number of measures to alleviate this problem, including rehabilitating the Rugezi wetlands, which supply water to Burera and Ruhondo and investing in a scheme to extract methane gas from Lake Kivu, expected in its first phase to increase the country's power generation by 40%. Only 18% of the population had access to electricity in 2012, though this had risen from 10.8% in 2009. The government's Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy for 2013–18 aims to increase access to electricity to 70% of households by 2017.


title: Rwanda

text: The government has increased investment in the transport infrastructure of Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, with aid from the United States, European Union, Japan, and others. The transport system consists primarily of the road network, with paved roads between Kigali and most other major cities and towns in the country. Rwanda is linked by road to other countries in the East African Community, namely Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya, as well as to the eastern Congolese cities of Goma and Bukavu; the country's most important trade route is the road to the port of Mombasa via Kampala and Nairobi, which is known as the Northern Corridor. The principal form of public transport in the country is the minibus, accounting for more than half of all passenger carrying capacity. Some minibuses, particularly in Kigali, operate an unscheduled service, under a shared taxi system, while others run to a schedule, offering express routes between the major cities. There are a smaller number of large buses, which operate a scheduled service around the country. The principal private hire vehicle is the motorcycle taxi; in 2013 there were 9,609 registered motorcycle taxis in Rwanda, compared with just 579 taxicabs. Coach services are available to various destinations in neighbouring countries. The country has an international airport at Kigali that serves several international destinations, the busiest routes being those to Nairobi and Entebbe; there is one domestic route, between Kigali and Kamembe Airport near Cyangugu. In 2017, construction began on the Bugesera International Airport, to the south of Kigali, which will become the country's largest when it opens, complementing the existing Kigali airport. The national carrier is RwandAir, and the country is served by seven foreign airlines. the country has no railways, but there is a project underway, in conjunction with Burundi and Tanzania, to extend the Tanzanian Central Line into Rwanda; the three countries have invited expressions of interest from private firms to form a public private partnership for the scheme. There is no public water transport between the port cities on Lake Kivu, although a limited private service exists and the government has initiated a programme to develop a full service. The Ministry of Infrastructure is also investigating the feasibility of linking Rwanda to Lake Victoria via shipping on the Akagera River.


title: Rwanda

text: , the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda estimated Rwanda's population to be 11,262,564, while the projection for 2021 was 12,955,736. The 2012 census recorded a population of 10,515,973. The population is young: in the 2012 census, 43.3% of the population were aged 15 and under, and 53.4% were between 16 and 64. According to the CIA "World Factbook", the annual birth rate is estimated at 40.2 births per 1,000 inhabitants in 2015, and the death rate at 14.9. The life expectancy is 67.67 years (69.27 years for females and 67.11 years for males), which is the 26th lowest out of 224 countries and territories. The overall sex ratio of the country is 95.9 males per 100 females.


title: Rwanda

text: At , Rwanda's population density is amongst the highest in Africa. Historians such as Gérard Prunier believe that the 1994 genocide can be partly attributed to the population density. The population is predominantly rural, with a few large towns; dwellings are evenly spread throughout the country. The only sparsely populated area of the country is the savanna land in the former province of Umutara and Akagera National Park in the east. Kigali is the largest city, with a population of around one million. Its rapidly increasing population challenges its infrastructural development. According to the 2012 census, the second largest city is Gisenyi, which lies adjacent to Lake Kivu and the Congolese city of Goma, and has a population of 126,000. Other major towns include Ruhengeri, Butare, and Muhanga, all with populations below 100,000. The urban population rose from 6% of the population in 1990, to 16.6% in 2006; by 2011, however, the proportion had dropped slightly, to 14.8%.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda has been a unified state since pre-colonial times, and the population is drawn from just one cultural and linguistic group, the Banyarwanda; this contrasts with most modern African states, whose borders were drawn by colonial powers and did not correspond to ethnic boundaries or pre-colonial kingdoms. Within the Banyarwanda people, there are three separate groups, the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The CIA "World Factbook" gives estimates that the Hutu made up 84% of the population in 2009, the Tutsi 15% and Twa 1%. The Twa are a pygmy people who descend from Rwanda's earliest inhabitants, but scholars do not agree on the origins of and differences between the Hutu and Tutsi. Anthropologist Jean Hiernaux contends that the Tutsi are a separate race, with a tendency towards "long and narrow heads, faces and noses"; others, such as Villia Jefremovas, believe there is no discernible physical difference and the categories were not historically rigid. In precolonial Rwanda the Tutsi were the ruling class, from whom the kings and the majority of chiefs were derived, while the Hutu were agriculturalists. The current government discourages the Hutu/Tutsi/Twa distinction, and has removed such classification from identity cards. The 2002 census was the first since 1933 which did not categorise Rwandan population into the three groups.


title: Rwanda

text: Prior to 2012, the Rwandan government provided free education in state-run schools for nine years: six years in primary and three years following a common secondary programme. In 2012, this started to be expanded to 12 years. A 2015 study suggests that while enrollment rates in primary schools are "near ubiquity", rates of completion are low and repetition rates high. While schooling is fee-free, there is an expectation that parents should contribute to the cost of their children's education by providing them with materials, supporting teacher development and making a contribution to school construction. According to the government, these costs should not be a basis for the exclusion of children from education, however. There are many private schools across the country, some church-run, which follow the same syllabus but charge fees. From 1994 until 2009, secondary education was offered in either French or English; because of the country's increasing ties with the East African Community and the Commonwealth, only the English syllabi are now offered. The country has a number of institutions of tertiary education. In 2013, the public University of Rwanda (UR) was created out of a merger of the former National University of Rwanda and the country's other public higher education institutions. In 2013, the gross enrollment ratio for tertiary education in Rwanda was 7.9%, from 3.6% in 2006. The country's literacy rate, defined as those aged 15 or over who can read and write, was 71% in 2009, up from 38% in 1978 and 58% in 1991.


title: Rwanda

text: The quality of healthcare in Rwanda has historically been very low, both before and immediately after the 1994 genocide. In 1998, more than one in five children died before their fifth birthday, often from malaria.


title: Rwanda

text: President Kagame has made healthcare one of the priorities for the Vision 2020 development programme, boosting spending on health care to 6.5% of the country's gross domestic product in 2013, compared with 1.9% in 1996. The government has devolved the financing and management of healthcare to local communities, through a system of health insurance providers called "mutuelles de santé". The "mutuelles" were piloted in 1999, and were made available nationwide by the mid-2000s, with the assistance of international development partners. Premiums under the scheme were initially US$2 per annum; since 2011 the rate has varied on a sliding scale, with the poorest paying nothing, and maximum premiums rising to US$8 per adult. , more than 90% of the population was covered by the scheme. The government has also set up training institutes including the Kigali Health Institute (KHI), which was established in 1997 and is now part of the University of Rwanda. In 2005, President Kagame also launched a program known as "The Presidents' Malaria Initiative". This initiative aimed to help get the most necessary materials for prevention of malaria to the most rural areas of Rwanda, such as mosquito nets and medication.


title: Rwanda

text: In recent years Rwanda has seen improvement on a number of key health indicators. Between 2005 and 2013, life expectancy increased from 55.2 to 64.0, under-5 mortality decreased from 106.4 to 52.0 per 1,000 live births, and incidence of tuberculosis has dropped from 101 to 69 per 100,000 people. The country's progress in healthcare has been cited by the international media and charities. "The Atlantic" devoted an article to "Rwanda's Historic Health Recovery". Partners In Health described the health gains "among the most dramatic the world has seen in the last 50 years".


title: Rwanda

text: Despite these improvements, however, the country's health profile remains dominated by communicable diseases, and the United States Agency for International Development has described "significant health challenges", including the rate of maternal mortality, which it describes as "unacceptably high", as well as the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, travellers to Rwanda are highly recommended to take preventive malaria medication as well as make sure they are up to date with vaccines such as yellow fever.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda also has a shortage of medical professionals, with only 0.84 physicians, nurses, and midwives per 1,000 residents. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is monitoring the country's health progress towards Millennium Development Goals 4–6, which relate to healthcare. A mid-2015 UNDP report noted that the country was not on target to meet goal 4 on infant mortality, despite it having "fallen dramatically"; the country is "making good progress" towards goal 5, which is to reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio, while goal 6 is not yet met as HIV prevalence has not started falling.


title: Rwanda

text: The largest faith in Rwanda is Protestantism, but there have been significant changes in the nation's religious demographics since the genocide, with many conversions to evangelical Christianity, and, to a lesser degree, Islam. According to the 2012 census, Roman Catholic Christians represented 43.7% of the population, Protestants (excluding Seventh-day Adventists) 37.7%, Seventh-day Adventists 11.8%, and Muslims 2.0%; 0.2% claimed no religious beliefs and 1.3% did not state a religion. Traditional religion, despite officially being followed by only 0.1% of the population, retains an influence. Many Rwandans view the Christian God as synonymous with the traditional Rwandan God "Imana".


title: Rwanda

text: The country's principal language is Kinyarwanda, which is spoken by nearly all Rwandans. The major European languages during the colonial era were German, though it was never taught or widely used, and then French, which was introduced by Belgium from 1916 and remained an official and widely spoken language after independence in 1962. Dutch was spoken as well. The return of English-speaking Rwandan refugees in the 1990s added a new dimension to the country's linguistic diversity. Kinyarwanda, English, French, and Swahili are all official languages. Kinyarwanda is the national language while English is the primary medium of instruction in secondary and tertiary education. Swahili, the lingua franca of the East African Community, is also spoken by some as a second language, particularly returned refugees from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and those who live along the border with the DRC. In 2015, Swahili was introduced as a mandatory subject in secondary schools. Inhabitants of Rwanda's Nkombo Island speak Mashi, a language closely related to Kinyarwanda.


title: Rwanda

text: Homosexuality is generally considered a taboo topic, and there is no significant public discussion of this issue in any region of the country. Some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Rwandans have reported being harassed and blackmailed. Same-sex sexual activity is not specifically illegal in Rwanda. Some cabinet-level government officials have expressed support for the rights of LGBT people, however no special legislative protections are afforded to LGBT people, who may be arrested by the police under various laws dealing with public order and morality. Same-sex marriages are not recognized by the state, as the constitution provides that "[o]nly civil monogamous marriage between a man and a woman is recognized".


title: Rwanda

text: Since 2006, Human Rights Watch has documented that Rwandan authorities round up and detain street children, street vendors, sex workers, homeless people, and beggars, as well as the use of torture in safe houses and other facilities, such as Kami military camp, Kwa Gacinya and Gikondo prison.


title: Rwanda

text: Music and dance are an integral part of Rwandan ceremonies, festivals, social gatherings and storytelling. The most famous traditional dance is a highly choreographed routine consisting of three components: the "umushagiriro", or cow dance, performed by women; the "intore", or dance of heroes, performed by men; and the drumming, also traditionally performed by men, on drums known as "ingoma". The best known dance group is the National Ballet. It was established by President Habyarimana in 1974, and performs nationally and internationally. Traditionally, music is transmitted orally, with styles varying between the social groups. Drums are of great importance; the royal drummers enjoyed high status within the court of the King ("Mwami"). Drummers play together in groups of varying sizes, usually between seven and nine in number. The country has a growing popular music industry, influenced by African Great Lakes, Congolese, and American music. The most popular genre is hip hop, with a blend of dancehall, rap, ragga, R&B and dance-pop.


title: Rwanda

text: Traditional arts and crafts are produced throughout the country, although most originated as functional items rather than purely for decoration. Woven baskets and bowls are especially common, notably the basket style of the agaseke. "Imigongo", a unique cow dung art, is produced in the southeast of Rwanda, with a history dating back to when the region was part of the independent Gisaka kingdom. The dung is mixed with natural soils of various colours and painted into patterned ridges to form geometric shapes. Other crafts include pottery and wood carving. Traditional housing styles make use of locally available materials; circular or rectangular mud homes with grass-thatched roofs (known as "nyakatsi") are the most common. The government has initiated a programme to replace these with more modern materials such as corrugated iron.


title: Rwanda

text: Rwanda does not have a long history of written literature, but there is a strong oral tradition ranging from poetry to folk stories. Many of the country's moral values and details of history have been passed down through the generations. The most famous Rwandan literary figure was Alexis Kagame (1912–1981), who carried out and published research into oral traditions as well as writing his own poetry. The Rwandan Genocide resulted in the emergence of a literature of witness accounts, essays and fiction by a new generation of writers such as Benjamin Sehene. A number of films have been produced about the Rwandan Genocide, including the Golden Globe-nominated "Hotel Rwanda", "100 Days", "Shake Hands with the Devil", "Sometimes in April", and "Shooting Dogs", the last four having been filmed in Rwanda and having featured survivors as cast members.


title: Rwanda

text: Fourteen regular national holidays are observed throughout the year, with others occasionally inserted by the government. The week following Genocide Memorial Day on 7 April is designated an official week of mourning. The victory for the RPF over the Hutu extremists is celebrated as Liberation Day on 4 July. The last Saturday of each month is "umuganda", a national morning of mandatory community service lasting from 8am to 11am, during which all able bodied people between 18 and 65 are expected to carry out community tasks such as cleaning streets or building homes for vulnerable people. Most normal services close down during "umuganda", and public transportation is limited.


title: Rwanda

text: The cuisine of Rwanda is based on local staple foods produced by subsistence agriculture such as bananas, plantains (known as "ibitoke"), pulses, sweet potatoes, beans, and cassava (manioc). Many Rwandans do not eat meat more than a few times a month. For those who live near lakes and have access to fish, tilapia is popular. The potato, thought to have been introduced to Rwanda by German and Belgian colonialists, is very popular. Ugali, locally known as "Ubugari" (or "umutsima") is common, a paste made from cassava or maize and water to form a porridge-like consistency that is eaten throughout the African Great Lakes. "Isombe" is made from mashed cassava leaves and can be served with dried fish, rice, ugali, potatoes etc. Lunch is usually a buffet known as "mélange", consisting of the above staples and sometimes meat. Brochettes are the most popular food when eating out in the evening, usually made from goat but sometimes tripe, beef, or fish. In rural areas, many bars have a brochette seller responsible for tending and slaughtering the goats, skewering and barbecuing the meat, and serving it with grilled bananas. Milk, particularly in a fermented yoghurt form called "ikivuguto", is a common drink throughout the country. Other drinks include a traditional beer called Ikigage made from sorghum and "urwagwa", made from bananas, and a soft drink called Umutobe which is banana juice; these popular drinks feature in traditional rituals and ceremonies. The major drinks manufacturer in Rwanda is Bralirwa, which was established in the 1950s, a Heineken partner, and is now listed on the Rwandan Stock Exchange. Bralirwa manufactures soft drink products from The Coca-Cola Company, under license, including Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Sprite, and a range of beers including Primus, Mützig, Amstel, and Turbo King. In 2009 a new brewery, Brasseries des Mille Collines (BMC) opened, manufacturing Skol beer and a local version known as Skol Gatanu; BMC is now owned by Belgian company Unibra. East African Breweries also operate in the country, importing Guinness, Tusker, and Bell, as well as whisky and spirits.


title: Rwanda

text: The Rwandan government, through its Sports Development Policy, promotes sport as a strong avenue for "development and peace building", and the government has made commitments to advancing the use of sport for a variety of development objectives, including education. The most popular sports in Rwanda are association football, volleyball, basketball, athletics and Paralympic sports. Cricket has been growing in popularity, as a result of refugees returned from Kenya, where they had learned to play the game. Cycling, traditionally seen largely as a mode of transport in Rwanda, is also growing in popularity as a sport; and Team Rwanda have been the subject of a book, "Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda's Cycling Team" and a film, "Rising from Ashes".


title: Rwanda

text: Rwandans have been competing at the Olympic Games since 1984, and the Paralympic Games since 2004. The country sent seven competitors to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, representing it in athletics, swimming, mountain biking and judo, and 15 competitors to the London Summer Paralympics to compete in athletics, powerlifting and sitting volleyball. The country has also participated in the Commonwealth Games since joining the Commonwealth in 2009. The country's national basketball team has been growing in prominence since the mid-2000s, with the men's team qualifying for the final stages of the African Basketball Championship four times in a row since 2007. The country bid unsuccessfully to host the 2013 tournament. Rwanda's national football team has appeared in the African Cup of Nations once, in the 2004 edition of the tournament, but narrowly failed to advance beyond the group stages. The team have failed to qualify for the competition since, and have never qualified for the World Cup. Rwanda's highest domestic football competition is the Rwanda National Football League; , the dominant team is APR FC of Kigali, having won 13 of the last 17 championships. Rwandan clubs participate in the Kagame Interclub Cup for Central and East African teams, sponsored since 2002 by President Kagame.


title: How I Met Your Father

text: How I Met Your Father is an American sitcom created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger which premiered on Hulu on January 18, 2022. It is a spin-off of "How I Met Your Mother". The series, which stars Hilary Duff, Christopher Lowell, Francia Raisa, Suraj Sharma, Tom Ainsley, Tien Tran, and Kim Cattrall, follows the main character, Sophie (Duff), and her group of friends in Manhattan. As a framing device, Sophie (Cattrall), in the year 2050, recounts to her unseen son the events that followed meeting his father in January 2022, and how they ultimately had him. In February 2022, the series was renewed for a second season which is set to premiere on January 24, 2023.


title: How I Met Your Father

text: Following the production of the 2014 CBS pilot "How I Met Your Dad", which did not move forward, on December 14, 2016, it was reported that Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger were set to write a new version of the previous spin-off's pilot, re-titled "How I Met Your Father", with Carter Bays and Craig Thomas serving as executive producers. It was later announced that, after signing new contracts with 20th Century Fox Television that would see both Aptaker and Berger being promoted to executive producers and co-showrunners on "This Is Us" alongside Dan Fogelman, the idea would be put on hold until further notice.


title: How I Met Your Father

text: On August 8, 2017, Fox chairman Dana Walden told "Deadline Hollywood" that 20th Television were attempting a spin-off with different writers, for the third time. Three days following the announcement, "Deadline" reported that Alison Bennett would write the spin-off, with the same title as the previous attempt with Aptaker and Berger. It was also learned that Bays and Thomas were once again hired as executive producers. This attempt also fell through.


title: How I Met Your Father

text: On April 21, 2021, the spin-off series titled "How I Met Your Father" was given a 10-episode series order by Hulu. Aptaker and Berger will serve as creators, writers, and executive producers while Hilary Duff will serve as a producer. 20th Television is involved with producing the series. On June 24, 2021, Pamela Fryman joined the series as an executive producer and to direct the pilot. On February 15, 2022, Hulu renewed the series for a 20-episode second season.


title: How I Met Your Father

text: Upon series order announcement, Hilary Duff was cast to star. On June 16, 2021, Chris Lowell joined the cast as the male lead. In August 2021, Francia Raisa, Tom Ainsley, Tien Tran, and Suraj Sharma were cast in starring roles while Brandon Micheal Hall was cast in a recurring role. However, a few weeks later, Hall exited the role due to a scheduling conflict and Daniel Augustin was cast to replace Hall. The next day, Josh Peck and Ashley Reyes joined the cast in recurring roles. On November 5, 2021, Kim Cattrall was cast in a recurring role as the future version of Duff's character Sophie. Upon the series premiere, it was reported that Leighton Meester is set to recur. On February 3, 2022, it was announced that Paget Brewster was cast to guest star on the episode,"The Good Mom", which aired on February 8, 2022.


title: How I Met Your Father

text: "How I Met Your Father" premiered on Hulu on January 18, 2022. Internationally, the show began streaming on Disney+ Vía Star and on Latín America on Star+ on March 9, 2022. The second season is scheduled to be released on January 24, 2023, on Hulu.


title: How I Met Your Father

text: According to Parrot Analytics, which looks at consumer engagement in consumer research, streaming, downloads, and on social media, "How I Met Your Father" was the fifth most in-demand new show, during the week of March 12, 2022, to March 18, 2022. According to Whip Media, "How I Met Your Father" was the 5th most watched original series across all platforms in the United States, during the week of January 23, 2022, as well during the week of January 30, 2022, the 8th during the week of February 13, 2022, the 4th during the week of March 13, 2022, and the 3rd during the week of March 20, 2022.


title: How I Met Your Father

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 38% approval rating with an average rating of 5/10, based on 45 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, ""How I Met Your Father" takes great pains to update its predecessor's formula for a modern audience, but this stilted retread only amounts to a painful slog." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 49 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Judi Dench

text: Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage. Dench has garnered various accolades throughout a career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards and seven Olivier Awards.


title: Judi Dench

text: Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years, she performed in several of Shakespeare's plays, in such roles as Ophelia in "Hamlet", Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" and Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth". Although most of Dench's work during this period was in theatre, she also branched into film work and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer. In 1968, she drew excellent reviews for her leading role of Sally Bowles in the musical "Cabaret".


title: Judi Dench

text: Over the next two decades, Dench established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She received critical acclaim for her work on television during this period, in the series "A Fine Romance" (1981–1984) and "As Time Goes By" (1992–2005), in both of which she held starring roles. Her film appearances were infrequent, and included supporting roles in major films, such as James Ivory's "A Room with a View" (1985), before she rose to international fame as M in "GoldenEye" (1995), a role she continued to play in eight James Bond films, until her final cameo appearance in "Spectre" (2015).


title: Judi Dench

text: An eight-time Academy Award nominee, Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love" (1998); her other Oscar-nominated roles were for "Mrs Brown" (1997), "Chocolat" (2000), "Iris" (2001), "Mrs Henderson Presents" (2005), "Notes on a Scandal" (2006), "Philomena" (2013) and "Belfast" (2021). She is also the recipient of several honorary awards, including the BAFTA Fellowship Award, the Society of London Theatre Special Award and the British Film Institute Fellowship Award.


title: Judi Dench

text: Judith Olivia Dench was born in the Heworth area of York on 9 December 1934, the daughter of an Irish mother and English father. Her mother, Eleanora Olive (née Jones), was born in Dublin; her father, Reginald Arthur Dench MC & Bar (1897–1964), was a doctor from Dorset who grew up primarily in Dublin and who fought on the Western Front in World War I.


title: Judi Dench

text: Dench attended the Mount School, a Quaker independent secondary school in York, and became a Quaker. She had two brothers named Peter and Jeffery (1928–2014), the latter of whom also became an actor. She is a cousin of Greek-Australian actors Rebekah Elmaloglou and Sebastian Elmaloglou. Her niece, Emma Dench, is a historian of ancient Rome. In October 2021 Dench was the subject of BBC One's "Who Do You Think You Are?", where it was revealed that she is descended from the Bille family of Danish aristocrats, and Steen Andersen Bille (1624–1698), the illegitimate son of Anders Steensen Bille () (1578–1633), as well as Claus Bille (1490–1558), a grandfather of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601).


title: Judi Dench

text: Through her parents, Dench had regular contact with the theatre: her father was the GP for York Theatre Royal, and her mother was its wardrobe mistress. Actors often stayed in the Dench household. During these years, Judi Dench was involved on a non-professional basis in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays in 1951, 1954 and 1957. In the third production she played the role of the Virgin Mary, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens. Though she initially trained as a set designer, she became interested in drama school as her brother Jeff attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. She was also inspired by seeing Peggy Ashcroft play Cleopatra on stage, which she later said "changed my life". She applied and was accepted by the Central School, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London, where she was a classmate of Vanessa Redgrave, graduating and being awarded four acting prizes, including the Gold Medal as Outstanding Student.


title: Judi Dench

text: Dench made her first professional stage appearance in September 1957 with the Old Vic Company at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool, as Ophelia in "Hamlet". According to the reviewer for "London Evening Standard", Dench had "talent which will be shown to better advantage when she acquires some technique to go with it". Dench then made her London debut in the same production at the Old Vic. She remained a member of the company for four seasons, 1957–1961, her roles including Katherine in "Henry V" in 1958 (which was also her New York City debut) and Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" in 1960, both directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli. During this period, she toured the United States and Canada and appeared in Yugoslavia and at the Edinburgh Festival. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in December 1961, playing Anya in "The Cherry Orchard" at the Aldwych Theatre in London and made her Stratford-upon-Avon debut in April 1962 as Isabella in "Measure for Measure". She subsequently spent seasons in repertory both with the Playhouse in Nottingham from January 1963 (including a West African tour as Lady Macbeth for the British Council), and with the Playhouse Company in Oxford from April 1964.


title: Judi Dench

text: In 1964, Dench appeared on television as Valentine Wannop in Theatre 625's adaptation of "Parade's End", shown in three episodes. Also she played a juvenile trouble maker in Z Cars atv series. That same year, she made her film debut in "The Third Secret", before featuring in a small role in the Sherlock Holmes thriller "A Study in Terror" (1965) with her Nottingham Playhouse colleague John Neville. She performed again on BBC's Theatre 365 in 1966, as Terry in the four-part series "Talking to a Stranger", for which she won a BAFTA for Best Actress.


title: Judi Dench

text: The 1966 BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles was made to Dench for her performance in "Four in the Morning" and this was followed in 1968 by a BAFTA Best Actress Award for her role in John Hopkins' 1966 BBC drama "Talking to a Stranger".


title: Judi Dench

text: In 1968, she was offered the role of Sally Bowles in the musical "Cabaret". As Sheridan Morley later reported: "At first she thought they were joking. She had never done a musical and she has an unusual croaky voice which sounds as if she has a permanent cold. So frightened was she of singing in public that she auditioned from the wings, leaving the pianists alone on stage". But when it opened at the Palace Theatre in February 1968, Frank Marcus, reviewing for "Plays and Players", commented that: "She sings well. The title song, in particular, is projected with great feeling."


title: Judi Dench

text: After a long run in "Cabaret", Dench rejoined the RSC, making numerous appearances with the company in Stratford and London for nearly twenty years, winning several "best actress" awards. Among her roles with the RSC, she was the Duchess in John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" in 1971. In the Stratford 1976 season, and then at the Aldwych in 1977, she gave two comedy performances, first in Trevor Nunn's musical staging of "The Comedy of Errors" as Adriana, then partnered with Donald Sinden as Beatrice and Benedick in John Barton's "British Raj" revival of "Much Ado About Nothing". As Bernard Levin wrote in "The Sunday Times": "... demonstrating once more that she is a comic actress of consummate skill, perhaps the very best we have." One of her most notable achievements with the RSC was her performance as Lady Macbeth in 1976. Nunn's acclaimed production of "Macbeth" was first staged with a minimalist design at The Other Place theatre in Stratford. Its small round stage focused attention on the psychological dynamics of the characters, and both Ian McKellen in the title role, and Dench, received exceptionally favourable notices. "If this is not great acting I don't know what is", wrote Michael Billington in "The Guardian". "It will astonish me if the performance is matched by any in this actress's generation", commented J C Trewin in "The Lady". The production transferred to London, opening at the Donmar Warehouse in September 1977, and was adapted for television, later released on VHS and DVD. Dench won the SWET Best Actress Award in 1977.


title: Judi Dench

text: Dench was nominated for a BAFTA for her role as Hazel Wiles in the 1979 BBC drama "On Giant's Shoulders". She had a romantic role in the BBC television film "Langrishe, Go Down" (1978), with Jeremy Irons and a screenplay by Harold Pinter from the Aidan Higgins novel, directed by David Jones, in which she played one of three spinster sisters living in a fading Irish mansion in the Waterford countryside. Dench made her debut as a director in 1988 with the Renaissance Theatre Company's touring season, "Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road", co-produced with the Birmingham Rep, and ending with a three-month repertory programme at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Dench's contribution was a staging of "Much Ado About Nothing", set in the Napoleonic era, which starred Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson as Benedick and Beatrice. She has made numerous appearances in the West End including the role of Miss Trant in the 1974 musical "The Good Companions" at Her Majesty's Theatre. In 1981, Dench was due to play Grizabella in the original production of "Cats", but was forced to pull out due to a torn Achilles tendon, leaving Elaine Paige to play the role.


title: Judi Dench

text: From 1981 to 1984, Dench starred in Britain's BAFTA award-winning "A Fine Romance" with her husband Michael Williams. In 1987, Dench played a supporting role in Columbia Pictures film "84 Charing Cross Road", with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. The film dramatizes a delightful and tender correspondence, of the same title, between American writer, Helene Hanff and British bookshop manager, Frank Doel, which began after WWI, in 1949, and ended in 1969. She also acted with the National Theatre in London where she played Cleopatra in "Antony and Cleopatra" (1987). In 1989, she appeared in David Tucker's "Behaving Badly" for Channel 4, based on Catherine Heath's novel of the same name.


title: Judi Dench

text: That same year, she was cast as Pru Forrest, the long-time silent wife of Tom Forrest, in the BBC soap opera "The Archers" on its 10,000th edition.


title: Judi Dench

text: After the long period between James Bond films "Licence to Kill" (1989) and "GoldenEye" (1995), the producers brought in Dench to take over as the role of M, James Bond's boss. The character was reportedly modeled on Dame Stella Rimington, the real-life head of MI5 between 1992 and 1996; Dench became the first woman to portray M, succeeding Robert Brown. The seventeenth spy film in the series and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 officer, "GoldenEye" marked the first Bond film made after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which provided the plot's back story. The film earned a worldwide gross of US$350.7 million, with critics viewing the film as a modernisation of the series. She also starred in BBC1's "As Time Goes By", a romantic comedy. Several series of the show were made between 1992 and 2005. In 1995, she played Desiree Armfeldt in a major revival of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music", for which she won an Olivier Award.


title: Judi Dench

text: In 1997, Dench appeared in her first starring film role as Queen Victoria in John Madden's teleplay "Mrs Brown", which depicts Victoria's relationship with her personal servant and favourite John Brown, played by Billy Connolly. Filmed with the intention of being shown on BBC One and on WGBH's "Masterpiece Theatre", it was eventually acquired by Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein, who felt the drama film should receive a theatrical release after seeing it and took it from the BBC to US cinemas. Released to generally positive reviews and unexpected commercial success, going on to earn more than $13 million worldwide, the film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. For her performance, Dench garnered universal acclaim by critics and was awarded her fourth BAFTA and first Best Actress nomination at the 70th Academy Awards. In 2011, while accepting a British Film Institute Award in London, Dench commented that the project launched her Hollywood career and joked that "it was thanks to Harvey, whose name I have had tattooed on my bum".


title: Judi Dench

text: Dench's other film of 1997 was Roger Spottiswoode's "Tomorrow Never Dies", her second film in the James Bond series. The same year, Dench reteamed with director John Madden to film "Shakespeare in Love" (1998), a romantic comedy drama that depicts a love affair involving playwright William Shakespeare, played by Joseph Fiennes, while he was writing the play "Romeo and Juliet". On her performance as Queen Elizabeth I, "The New York Times" commented that "Dench's shrewd, daunting Elizabeth is one of the film's utmost treats". The following year, she was nominated for most of the high-profile awards, winning both the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. On her Oscar win, Dench joked on-stage, "I feel for eight minutes on the screen, I should only get a little bit of him."


title: Judi Dench

text: Also in 1999, Dench won the Tony Award for her 1999 Broadway performance in the role of Esme Allen in Sir David Hare's "Amy's View". The same year, she co-starred along with Cher, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, and Lily Tomlin in Franco Zeffirelli's semi-autobiographical period drama "Tea with Mussolini" which tells the story of young Italian boy Luca's upbringing by a circle of British and American women, before and during World War II. 1999 also saw the release of Pierce Brosnan's third Bond film, "The World Is Not Enough". This film portrayed M in a larger role with the villain, Renard, coming back to haunt her when he engineers the murder of her old friend Sir Robert King and seemingly attempts to kill his daughter Elektra.


title: Judi Dench

text: In January 2001, Dench's husband Michael Williams died of lung cancer. Dench went to Nova Scotia in Canada almost immediately after his funeral to begin production on Lasse Hallström's drama film "The Shipping News", a therapy she later credited as her rescue: "People, friends, kept saying, 'You are not facing up to it; you need to face up to it', and maybe they were right, but I felt I was – in the acting. Grief supplies you with an enormous amount of energy. I needed to use that up." In between, Dench finished work on Richard Eyre's film "Iris" (2001), in which she portrayed novelist Iris Murdoch. Dench shared her role with Kate Winslet, both actresses portraying Murdoch at different phases of her life. Each of them was nominated for an Oscar the following year, earning Dench her fourth nomination in five years. In addition, she was awarded both an ALFS Award and the Best Leading Actress Award at the 55th British Academy Film Awards.


title: Judi Dench

text: After "Iris", Dench immediately returned to Canada to finish "The Shipping News" alongside Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by E. Annie Proulx, the drama revolves around a quiet and introspective typesetter (Spacey) who, after the death of his daughter's mother, moves to Newfoundland along with his daughter and his aunt, played by Dench, in hopes of starting his life anew in the small town where she grew up. The film earned mixed reviews from critics, and was financially unsuccessful, taking in just US$24 million worldwide with a budget of US$35 million. Dench received BAFTA and SAG Award nominations for her performance.