another documentary at the nziff - this one quite sobering
the motive for the film is to pay homage to polish man raphael lemkin
born in 1900 - son of a jewish couple who perished at the hands of the nazis
ironically before that he had been horrified by the turkish slaughter of armenians
as a young lawyer decided to dedicate his life to ensuring that was not repeated
he actually coined the word 'genocide' and wanted it to become international law
but at a big conference in 1934 it was deemed a good idea but not necessary
not something that would be required as law in civilised europe - ah - oops
he then parked himself in new york and badgered the u.n. in his cause
there does not seem to be much footage of lemkin so the film fills out
lots of scenes featuring voice over animated/cartoonish nature drawings
quite well done though possibly over-done with a lot of screentime used
there are 4 other people interviewed and seen often throughout the film
samantha power dominates the time spent as talking head / expert
she the usa ambassador to the un - very dry - and quite realistic
so much time spent listening to her ramble on like it's her story
which apparantly it is - the film based on her recent book
a problem from hell - america and the age of genocide
strikingly though america's problem is the lack of punishment
they being one of many countries slow to punish perpetrators
another of the talking heads is ben ferencz - another lawyer
to his credit was one of the prosecuting attornies at nuremberg
some footage from there as a very young man taking on the nazis
he talks about the fact that only a few were punished - dock sizes
they could only fit 22 in the dock so that was all that got charged
these days he continues to bug the u.n. about punishing others
ditto international criminal court prosecutor luis moreno-ocampo
argentinian who has spent his life writing, talking, negotiatingso lots of talking from these people and their organisations
thankfully the film has another person to provide some interest
emmanuel umurukundu is a senior member of the u.n. based in chad
he a direct victim of genocide having seen his own family hacked to death
parents, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles - all tutsis - killed by the hutus
a modern day genocide on a massive scale - over 1 million killed in 100 days
and the 'mastermind' as they call him - the president of sudan - omar al-bashir
strangely he is still president of sudan - despite an arrest warrant for genocide
his country and many others not recognising the warrant issued by the icc
the film suggesting economics (read oil) at work again - but of course
all in all quite a frustrating film - and probably intentionally so i think
we do lots of hand-wringing and posturing but not much else
produce films with clever graphics and lots of talking heads
but in the end money wins and common people lose
glad i saw it but nothing much gained from it
except names and faces of the ineffectual
oh and the purported reason for the film
raphael lemkin - died of sheer frustration?
