Documentary, 100 min.

Title E:	Humanitarian Citadel
Title G:	Bastion der Menschlichkeit

by Frédéric Gonseth

Switzerland, September 2008

It’s a tough task: the humanization of war. And a big shock: fighter jets against the old weapons of feudal tribes. What can this Swiss man hope for, flying the famous white flag with the red cross in the Arab desert? The deployment of several hundred delegates and doctors from Switzerland, Germany and France into the civil war which raged in a 1960s Yemeni – though the country was trapped in the middle ages – was the International Committee of the Red Cross’s most spectacular and effective action in a time when it was still independently active, with no talk of NGO’s. The adventure is recounted by those who risked their lives under this mission, led by André Rochat. The narration takes us behind the scenes of humanitarian power in the desert to the roots of the struggle and the people’s dignity. The setting is made up of citadels as old as the bible itself, which are partly intact even till today.

www.citadellehumanitaire.ch