Sergio

Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power's biography, "Chasing the Flame", director Greg Barker's film tells the story of a man who has been called both "the most important man that no one has heard of" and "a cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy".

On the 19th of August, 2003, Special Representative of the Secretary General to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello died along with 21 other UN staff members when the UN headquarters at the Canal Hotel in Iraq was bombed. Unlike the other victims, Sergio did not die immediately following the explosion but remained buried alive under the rubble for four hours. At the core of this documentary, we find the emotionally intense interviews with the two ideologically polarized American soldiers who worked their way through the rubble to rescue him.

Mixing testimony with reenactments of the rescue attempts and news footage, "Sergio" is a both moving and uplifting document of an admirable man's life and death. Further, it engages the audience in a conversation about the principles and ethics that should guide US foreign policy into the 21st Century.
TOR ROSSING ÖBERG

Producer: Greg Barker, John Battsek, Julie Goldman
Cinematography: Patrick Fraser, Frank-Peter Lehmann, Colin Clarke, Silvestre Campe
Music: Philip Sheppard