THE FILM
The Negotiators - How to make peace, is a journey into the many conflict zones that are currently shaking our world. It is about creating pathways to finding solutions to solve them and, above all, it is a portrait of the people who make conflict resolution possible.
SYNOPSIS
The Negotiators - How to make peace, is a documentary film that takes a deep look at the personalities and the personal journeys of people who seek solutions to armed conflicts in the 21st century.
"The Negotiators" is a journey through the personal stories of very different characters. In Mexico, Jordi Raich, a “neutral intermediary” of the ICRC. He was one of the architects of Colombia’s 2016 peace agreement. In South Sudan, Dorsa Nazemi shows us her work negotiating on the ground with tribal chiefs. Valentin Inzko is an Austrian diplomat and former High Commissioner for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dag Nylander, a Norwegian diplomat, tells us how his country seeks solutions to conflicts and how he has been involved in many different negotiations around the world.
Negotiation is an inherent part of our lives. We all have to negotiate for everything, all the time. It is a fact that is in our DNA as human beings.
THE TEAM
The Director
ROSALIND BAIN
The director / ROSALIND BAIN
The documentary is an invitation to get to know this human drama, and also to an intimate reflection of our own attitude on a day-to-day basis.
My intention is not only to depict a generally unknown reality (the very nature of the work requires maximum discretion), but also to have an impact on it, shaking the viewers, in the sense that they feel called to convert themselves into negotiators of their own lives.
Traditionally woman have had a weaker position physically and often economically, so I think they have been forced to become natural negotiators.
However it is worth noting how few women are included in formal peace negotiations. Although improving But women are often excluded from formal peace processes. Between 1992 and 2019, women constituted, on average, 13 percent of negotiators, 6 percent of mediators, and 6 percent of signatories in major peace processes around the world
Rosalind Bain is a versatile British documentary and series director and producer with extensive experience of shooting overseas on an extensive range of entertainment documentaries, travel, history, science, remote location, archive and current affairs documentaries for ITV, CHANNEL 4, CHANNEL 5, BBC, Nat Geo and Netflix. Rosalind Bain is used to working in hostile envi-ronments, with journalistic skills and great gifts as an audiovisual storyteller.
The Negotiators - How to make Peace, is his first feature film for cinema.
She has received many awards, such as the BMA for Best Science Program, Best Business Story Disclosure Journalist for Television in 2004 and Best Branded Content Campaign 2016. Her work as a producer for Staff Four News, spe-cialising in foreign affairs and conflict areas and, in particular, “Taliban: Afghanistan reports with Saira Shah” which won the Amnesty International award.
A film that has taken him to Colombia, Mexi-co, Norway, the UK, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and South Sudan.
What do you take away from almost four years of filming?
I came to understand that trust is the most difficult thing to gain, especially after many years of conflict. So much pain and trauma has been caused that it is often very difficult to find the space to even begin to negotiate.
It is for that reason that outside intermediaries can often be the way to facilitate a path to peace.
Over our 4 years of filming, we met many different personalities and situations and what struck me about the negotiators was their commitment, their willingness to spend huge amounts of time to start and complete a process and their attention to detail.
They all in different ways tried to build a genuine rapport with the different parties of the conflict.
THE CHARACTERS
Being a negotiator is not easy. Many of them are living without a fix residence, home or property. Always on a journey from one country to the next. It is sometimes a life of transhumance. They travel with the things that fit in their case. Doing their job, they could be killed every single day.
The life of a negotiator or "problem solver" for the conflicts of this world is not an easy one. But at the same time they are aware that the decisions they make can improve the lives of many people, even though they will never see their work completed.
„We humans have created a society where, like it or not, violence is part of it. And it's been there for centuries, for ages, and it's going to continue to be there. Is that better? Is that worse? Well, I'm not sure. It's just a reality we have to cope with.“
Jordi Raich
„My job is to understand and navigate a complex labyrinth of societal and tribal politics that is very, very foreign to me."
Dorsa Nazemi
„Being a Norwegian diplomat you get into this kind of work relatively quickly, and I remember starting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a couple of decades back. I ended up going to Colombia back in 2006, helping to facilitate peace talks.„
Dag Nylander
„Negotiate based on facts, on facts and figures. Of course we can always speak about politics, we can speak about the future, we can speak about something imaginary, but when you speak about facts is always easy because facts are measurable, they exist or they don't exist, right?"
Valentin Inzko
THE PRODUCERS
BSX produces cultural TV documentaries, TV magazine series, cultural print and online publi-cations and cultural projects. The company was founded in 1990 by Hansjürgen Schmölzer.
Some of his works have been selected for different festivals, he won the Ondas award for the documentary “Los hombres del silencio” broadcast on TVE and TV3.
“Ernest Lluch, libre y atrevido” for RTVE, TV3 AND EITB. Ernest Lluch was the first socialist Health Minis-ter who helped lay the foundations of modern Spain, implemented the current model of univer-sal and free public health care and the first abortion law. Lluch was assassinated by ETA on 21 November 2000.This documentary was in the official selection of the Festival FIC-CAT 2021, Festival de cine y derechos humanos Donostia / San Sebastian, Menorca DocFest and ZINEBI / Bilbao.
BSX produces cultural TV documentaries, TV magazine series, cultural print and online publi-cations and cultural projects. The company was founded in 1990 by Hansjürgen Schmölzer.
The marketing and communication management of “Graz 2003 - European Capital of Culture” was an important step for the company. In 2007, BSX established a creative park in the Annenviertel district of Graz. Today, theatre groups, fi lm and media production services as well as fi lm and pu-blishing studios and event halls are housed there on a total area of more than 5,000 m2.
BSX has been awarded the “Globe Award” for the best marketed cultural project in the world (Graz 2003) and the Staatspreis Marketing.
BSX manages the cultural platform CREATIVE AUSTRIA, which supports young Austrian artists and creatives in their international activities.
First Hand Films is an award-winning international sales company, a theatrical distributor in Switzerland’s four language regions and a producer based in Zürich.
Run by Esther van Messel since 1998, FHF finds partners, finance and deals with the entire production process. FHF has sold thousands of licenses worldwide, turned over more than twenty million Euro and its films have won many awards including Emmies, Golden Roses and Oscar Nominations.FHF works with ambitious and accessible projects worldwide, combining intelligence, practical knowledge and experience. Today, First Hand Films have been seen by hundreds of millions of people all over the world, in cinemas, on TV and online
CREDITS
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Directed by
Rosalind Bain
Produced by
Jordi Vilar
Josep Morell
Hansjürgen Schmölzer
Esther van Messel
Production by
Sílvia Houdier
Nora Theiss
Written by
Josep Morell
Rosalind Bain
Carlos Monte
Photography by
Joan Tisminetzky
Edited by
Juan Gabriel García (AMMAC)
Music by
Hannes Gill
Sound Designer and Mixer
Carlos Jiménez
Executive Producers
Jordi Vilar
Hansjürgen Schmölzer
Esther van Messel
Executive Producer TVC
Jordi Ambròs Hortensi
TVC Content Edition
Montse Armengou Martín
Delegated Production TVC
Daniel Barea Delgado
Research
Montserrat Rossell
Sound Recording
Daniela Fermin
Gerd Jochum
Additional Sound Recording
Pau Tolosa
Aleix Cuaresma
Jordi Paris
Additional Photography
Gerfried Guggi
Anna Abbasi
Sam Gracey
Henry Bedwell
Associate Editor
Bernat Aragonés
Additional Editing
Anabel Rodríguez
Motion Graphics
Sergi Esgleas Pascual
Archival Researcher
Montserrat Rossell
Julia Ufer
Julius Gutiérrez
Colorist
Pepín
Additional Sound Mixing
Puretone
Insync Sudio
Postproduction
Antaviana Films
Archive Sources
Cinémathèque Suisse
Archivos CICR
Alto Comisionado Para La Paz En Colombia
The Nobel Prize
FARC
Ràdio i Televisió de Bòsnia i Hercegovina (BHRT)
Nara (Bono Labs)
Pond5
Shutterstock
Caracol Radio
Photographic Sources
Dorsa Nazemi
Jordi Raich
Nacho Burull
Thomas Ess
ICRC Archive
Produced by
Ottokar Editora Audiovisual
BSX Schmölzer
First Hand Films
In collaboration with
TVC
With the support of
ICEC
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europea y Cooperación
Generalitat de Catalunya
and
Ossamajor Iniciatives Emprenedores, Sl
Josep Lluís Segú
Gakeport sl
Pere Galí
Josep Maria Riutort
Toni Lasala
Joana Rodríguez
Alex Arnella
Àngels Barceló
Xavier Fàbregas
