SERGIO

"He was the world's go-to guy. He'd probably seen more wars, more human misery, than any man or woman of his generation." - filmmaker Greg Barker

Diplomat Sergio De Mello had so much star quality his biographer called him “a cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy”. During his time as a UN envoy he fearlessly entered trouble spots to help broker peace - he was instrumental in negotiating with Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, and in helping East Timor establish independence. His life was as dramatic as his death, the result of a suicide-bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad, 2003.

This gripping film re-enacts the bombing, placing it alongside interviews from rescue workers, creating a documentary-within-a-documentary where De Mello's story plays out against the suspense of the bombing aftermath.

--- D Greg Barker P John Battsek, Greg Barker, Julie Goldman WS John Battsek TD digibeta/2009