As we discovered in films 1, 2 and 3, leading a nation is no mean feat. Despite this we're often left questioning the state of leadership in the world and it seems we're not alone.
British telecoms entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim recognised the difficulties with his foundation aimed squarely at identifying leaders of the 54 nations in Africa who improve the living standard of their countries whilst adhering to democratic principles. The foundation, started in 2007, awards a $5m prize each year to the leader of an African country who fulfils the criteria. Sadly, for the third year running, the foundation felt it was unable to identify a leader worthy of the prize. In fact in the six years the award has only been given three times.
Perhaps the bleakest recognition of a global crisis in leadership came from Mary Robinson, a board member of the foundation. Robinson said, "Speaking as a European, I don't think we would necessarily have three European leaders who would qualify"
Robinson's statement looks even bleaker when coupled with the "non-recipient" of this years Nobel Peace Prize. No single leader, international figure or indeed any single individual received the award. Amongst much derision from the press, it was given to an organisation - the European Union.
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Have a look at our series trailer to look at the issues concerning leadership that we deal with in our first three films:
Last night we went along to the Frontline Club in London for what was dubbed a “sneaky sneak preview” of the third film in our Price of Kings series, documenting the leadership of ex-President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias.
Now, as we said in our last post, you may not have heard of Arias before, but his story is quite amazing.
He is a really interesting leader, a man who has stuck by his beliefs and convictions through two terms as President of his small nation. His leadership style is so different from the norm that some have dubbed him the ‘anti-politician’.
We hope that everyone who attended the film last night enjoyed it. As co-director Richard mentioned, last night the film was shown in an unfinished format, but we got some really good feedback from members of the audience.
There were also some very interesting questions posed to our co-directors during the Q&A after the film, so we thought it would be good to list some of them here:
Q: Why did Oscar Arias’ ex-wife and son not appear in the film?
A: The simple reason is that they are both quite private people and fairly media shy. There are no skeletons in Arias' closet!
Q: What kind of role does Oscar Arias play in international issues? It seems to me that he could be a spokesperson taking a stand on issues such a Syria?
A: As shown in the film, Arias has been instrumental in campaigning in support of an international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Whether he feels he could step in to talk about Syria, I don’t know. Certainly Kofi Annan tried to help stop the violence there, but failed and has subsequently stepped down. It’s a very difficult situation.
Q: Why did Oscar Arias’ ex-wife and son not appear in the film?
A: The simple reason is that they are both quite private people and fairly media shy. There are no skeletons in Arias' closet!
Q: In the film, even the people closest to Oscar Arias are fairly open about his faults. Does anyone actually like Arias
A: In fact, apart from about 2 people, everyone we spoke to was very warm about Arias. The fact that they talk about his flaws as well as his strengths is because Arias himself is open enough to let them talk about him in such honest terms.
We are looking forward to getting the film finished and ready for DVD and streaming online in the coming months. To keep up to date on all our news, including release dates and exclusive offers, sign up to our mailing list over at Spirit Level Film.
