Sergio

With ‘Man on Wire’ finesse, Barker’s documentary interweaves flashbacks of the historic career of UN master-diplomat, Sergio Vieira de Mellow, with a reconstruction of the day his life hung in the balance when trapped under the bomb-damaged UN embassy in Iraq. Far from the UN action-hero that de Mellow’s 007 charm and the ‘West-Wing’-lite soundtrack could so easily have spawned, this film’s moving interviews reveal the immensity of Sergio’s achievements, his sang-froid, humour and humanism, culminating in an inspiring and discerning film of high-politics and intimate last moments, as nail-biting as any James Bond flick. India Bourke