Conversation with …
Romuald Sciora: ‘The Price of Peace’
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Directed by French filmmaker Romuald Sciora, “The Price of Peace” is an ambitious two-part project on the past and future of the United Nations. “Mister Secretary-General …” is a television series on the history of the United Nations, as told by UN secretaries-general, featuring current Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his predecessors—Kurt Waldheim, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and Boutros Boutros-Ghali—as well as Sir Brian Urquhart, who speaks about his experience working for the first three deceased secretaries-general: Trygve Lie, Dag Hammarskjöld and U Thant. The series will debut in Geneva and then in New York on 29 November 2005 on the occasion of the United Nations sixtieth anniversary. The second part, On the Blue Road, is a feature-length documentary film structured as a journey through the various institutions of the UN system and will explore how the United Nations deals with the critical issues facing the world today. It is aimed for theatrical release in 2006.
Mr. Sciora ,who is also a playwright, began his work with an acclaimed series of documentary films titled Chronicles from a Barbaric Era. His latest feature-length film, The Ashes of the Phoenix, was inspired by the work of Father Mansour Labaky, who devoted his life to helping underprivileged children in Lebanon and through his writings sought to teach peace and tolerance.
Horst Rutsch of the UN Chronicle spoke with Mr. Sciora on 6 June 2005.
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On the structure of the project
The first part is a televised series, a collection of films on the history of the United Nations as told by its former secretaries-general. This is the first project of its kind. Former UN Under-Secretary-General Sir Brian Urquhart hosts the first episode, which discusses the first three secretaries-general: Trygve Lie, Dag Hammarsjköld and U Thant. The second part deals with Kurt Waldheim; the third, Pérez de Cuéllar; the fourth, Boutros Boutros-Ghali; and the final one will focus on Secretary-General Kofi Annan. All episodes will be of the same length—about 30 minutes—due to television broadcasting constraints. However, each segment was the result of approximately ten hours of filming; obviously, there is plenty of material.
We are working in close partnership with the United Nations, using rare archived images that will complement the testimonies of speakers. We were able to have several preparatory meetings with the Secretaries-General and also to film for extended sessions. This allowed the project to go beyond the simple interview format and become a work of reflection and oral history. During these episodes, there are several smaller anecdotes, including descriptions of encounters with world leaders, such as Kurt Waldheim’s meeting with George Herbert Walker Bush when he was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and when Pérez de Cuéllar tried to convince Saddam Hussein to withdraw his troops from Kuwait. We tried to infuse the great history of the United Nations with personal reflections.
On the launch of the television series
The premiere of the series, hosted by the French Embassy, will take place on 29 November 2005 at the Alliance Française in New York. Two episodes will be screened, followed by a panel discussion with Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor, Sir Brian Urquhart and Stephen Schlesinger of the Trustee of the Center for UN Reform Education, among others. There will also be simultaneous events in Paris. The former French Ministry of Foreign Affairs created a committee on the United Nations—of which I was a member—for the celebration of the Organization’s sixtieth anniversary. We are also organizing a great premiere in Paris in December, to be followed by a panel discussion.
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| With former Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.
Photo courtesy of Romuald Sciora |
On the forthcoming book
The United Nations is publishing a book, tied into the television series, on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary. The preface will be by French President Jacques Chirac. The first part is an essay by Stephen Schlesinger on the history of the Organization, focusing on the secretaries-general. The second is going to be transcripts of interviews from the series; the third is a collection of interviews with figures involved with the United Nations, offering insights of various intellectuals on the current work of the UN. Its approach is forward-looking and eventually returns to the key role of the secretaries-general, since that is the central theme of both the television series and the book.
The book will be published in French and launched in Geneva in October 2005. I hope an English edition will follow, but it is not for me to decide; however, it should not be too difficult because the filming was in English. Furthermore, the majority of interviews are also in English and each transcript had to be translated into French for the book. Since the United Nations Office in Geneva is publishing it, the book will be relaunched on the occasion of the election of a new Secretary-General next year, but its contents would still be current.
On the feature film
The book and the television series make up the first part of this project. The second part is a two-hour documentary on the theme "The UN of Today Facing the Challenges of Tomorrow", a feature-length film, planned for theatrical release. Whereas the series and the book focus on the history of the United Nations, the film will concentrate on the future. Titled On the Blue Road, it is an enormous project, but one that will be filmed with the equipment and expertise worthy of a feature-length production. Its opening will have a choreographed piece by French dancer Maurice Béjar, as a hymn to the humanist values of the United Nations. The first part focuses on the United Nations at the institutional level and will be shot primarily in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi—the four head offices of the Organization.
The second part will follow the UN operations throughout the world and therefore more field-oriented. We’ll shoot one week in Timor-Leste with Nobel Laureate José Ramos-Horta to illustrate the work done by the late Brazilian diplomat and Special Representative to the Secretary-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello. We will also film with the United Nations Children’s Fund in either Sierra Leone or Angola; with Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, in the Middle East to illustrate issues about water; and with Bernard Kouchner, former head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, to address questions of self-determination. Altogether, we will be working in six or seven countries. For the first time so many members of the current United Nations team will be participating in such an immense undertaking. We will be interviewing people outside of the Organization—intellectuals, politicians, people we meet during the shoot, and those who may have opinions contrary to those of the United Nations. Opinions complementary to the United Nations world view will also be reflected.
On filming the whole spectrum of UN activities
We are not limiting ourselves by focusing exclusively on UN peacekeeping. We want to deal with the United Nations in conjunction with developmental, environmental and political affairs, and we are working with different UN programmes and specialized agencies. For instance, with the help of Under-Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Olara Otunnu, we want to reveal the work that has been done on behalf of children. We also want to showcase what has been done for refugees; we will discuss with High Commissioner on Human Rights Louise Arbour the most pressing concerns in that domain; and we will even show what the United Nations accomplishes in the field of civil aviation.
Of course, we cannot describe all the work of the United Nations, but our goal is to demonstrate that this global institution is not limited to peacekeeping missions. These are certainly essential, but they are not the sum total of its work. Our mission is to help the public understand that the United Nations is dealing with a very wide range of challenges and to learn what can be done in these areas of particular concern. We will show what kind of work has been done thus far in Africa, for example, with the Ted Turner Foundation. If we have the chance to work with Nelson Mandela, we will talk about the current UN efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic. We would not focus merely on the past, for instance the legacy of apartheid, but on what is being done with regard to AIDS and the UN role in this campaign. We will try to explore several UN mandates.
On the origin and goals of the film
The actual idea came to me in 2003 from a meeting I had with Staffan De Mistura, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for South Lebanon at the time. I was filming another movie—The Ashes of the Phoenix—on the blue line between Lebanon and Israel, and he introduced me to the work of the United Nations. I then spoke with Jean Lacouture, the famous French journalist who was with me during filming, about the need for a truly global vision for the general public to understand what the United Nations actually accomplishes. This would be a vision that not only encompasses the history of the Organization but also gives a substantial overview of its work. I met several people who found the idea very, very interesting.
The initial financing for the film came early on and that allowed us to continue at a rapid pace. All in all, it is a political film. The underlying motivation was to show that despite the problems and necessary reforms to be addressed, the United Nations has the capacity to respond to threats and challenges, as well as propose global solutions to crises. The Organization may not be perfect, but nothing is perfect. It offers hope to millions and millions of people in the world. To convey this reality is the goal of my work. From the conception of the idea to the likely end point, when the film’s DVD comes out in late spring of 2007, I will have spent approximately four years working on this project.
The film’s objective is to be accessible to the largest number of people, not just for experts, and to clarify the issues the United Nations is dealing with and at the same time create something with artistic merit. We will begin shooting at the beginning of 2006, which will take about six months in its entirety. The film will be shown in December 2006 in New York and will open the International Film Festival of Human Rights in Geneva in March 2007; then it will be released worldwide.
On the ultimate goals of the whole project
The television series is going to target a more intellectual public and will be broadcast on such channels as Arte in France and the History Channel in North America. Compared to the film, it will probably have an effect on fewer people, even though the series on the secretaries-general is an unprecedented historical event. The documentary must reach a wider audience. Because it was made with the cooperation of the United Nations, this will most likely touch millions of people. With the magic of cinema, we can really reach out beyond political discourse and try to touch something universal. The overarching idea is not only to make the political framework simple and accessible enough for the largest possible group but also make it attractive. It is a political film, but it is also an artistic and poetic endeavour. |
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