Alan Channer reports on the French version of the award-winning documentary film The Imam and the Pastor, screened at CINÉMA VERITÉ, the world’s most prestigious celebration of films that highlight humanitarian and social causes, in Geneva on October 10th and Paris on October 12th.
The theme of Cinéma Verité 2008 – ‘inter-cultural understanding and dialogue between peoples’ - was the inspiration of Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan.
In her key-note address, Queen Noor cited Gandhi’s exhortation ‘to be the change you wish to see in the world’, and saluted film-makers ‘whose vision, courage and compassion… help us better understand our world and our responsibilities to it’.
The Imam and the Pastor, made by For the Love of Tomorrow Films (FLTfilms), London, depicts the unlikely journey taken by two former enemies on opposite sides of the Christian-Muslim divide in Nigeria.
The film’s protagonists Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, along with film-makers Alan and Mary Channer, from Britain, and Imad Karam, from Palestine, were among Cinéma Verité’s official guests – who included Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, international mediator Mohamed Sahnoun, musician/campaigner Bob Geldof and actress Meg Ryan.
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