Anna Daniels
The tense geopolitical conflict portrayed in Sergio didn’t come out of a writer’s room. It centers on real-life events that took place in Baghdad in 2003 in the midst of the Iraq war. At the heart of the story is Sergio Vieira de Mello, a real-life United Nations diplomat who brokered numerous peace deals for the UN over the course of his career. He spent his professional life dropping feet-first into armed conflicts, negotiating with warlords, and shining a spotlight on humanitarian crises around the globe.
Sure, there have been critics of Vieira de Mello’s apparent tendency to chase conflicts, and, as The New Yorker revealed in 2007, even his own colleagues in the UN often disapproved of his “amoral” methods of securing treaties with some of the more volatile regional leaders. Leaders like, oh, those in charge of the Khmer Rouge.
But one aspect that stands above criticism is Vieiro de Mello’s optimistic message about leaving the world a better place. It’s even possible that this attitude led him to grudgingly accept one final assignment in Baghdad. While there, Vieira de Mello was caught in a bombing at the Canal Hotel. In the hours that followed, an intense life-and-death struggle played out in the rubble as Vieira de Mello waited desperately for rescuers to arrive and dig him out.
It’s not a story that makes for light viewing, there’s no doubt about that. But for white-knuckle tension it’s right on the mark.
Written by: Looper
