Foreign Affairs - Screening Sunday 12:00 at the Usine a Gaz - 12:00. Tickets hereFascinating insight into the world of diplomacy and foreign affairs
Hotel rooms in India, Israel, Iran, Russia and many other countries around the world. Boarding and disembarking endless planes and interviews, shaking hands and making small talk with world leaders. Such is the life of Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs.
Photos above and below - Pasha Rafiy courtesy Visions du Réel
This film goes behinds the scenes of the Minister, following him wherever he goes, from his political world with an entourage and cavalcade of cars and red carpet life, to him eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast at home whilst catching up on the news on his iPad. We see him in shorts mowing the lawn and battling with a recalcitrant lawnmower, and then on the phone (still in shorts) talking strategy with some other diplomat before a round of negotiations.
The film is a fascinating insight into the world of a diplomat. Asselborn is a cyclist and passionate about cycling. He uses the subject of cycling in his small talk with other diplomats and you can see his excitement when he is in the Elysée Palace as he gets to have his photo taken next to the Tour de France porcelain bowl before President Hollande hands it out to a winner. You also see the diplomat on holiday cycling up a very steep hill in Switzerland. Much of Asselborn's job seems to be an uphill struggle, battling jetlag and continuous rounds of negotiations through various world crises, but he does it with equanimity and humour.
Foreign Affairs is the first film by director Pasha Rafiy. At the question and answer session after the film on the Saturday night at the festival, he revealed that he works as a picture editor for a publication in Vienna. He said that out of the hundreds of photos he works with, he has to choose just one, a main photo that tells the story. But, he said, he is also interested in the photos that don't get shown, the "B" side of the story and this is what he aimed to show in this film, the "B" side of the life of a diplomat.
Rafiy does this superbly. The affable Minister Jean Asselborn was also at the screening in Nyon last night and he too took questions from the audience, which inevitably turned towards the political. He answered as politely and as best he could, a diplomat to the end.
Photos below - Living in Nyon - apologies for poor quality photos (taken at a distance on an iPhone)