Selfish (57΄), Stefanie Santini & Geraldine Andre, Switzerland
War, emergency, pandemics and hunger. Humanitarian workers are used to working in the most varied and extreme missions and contexts across the planet. However, few of them venture openly into the world of personal feelings. For this film, forty humanitarian workers and their loved ones did just that, speaking without reserve about the risk, the commitment, the first mission, the sense of powerlessness, the encounters, the passion, the return home and the unspeakable things they’ve witnessed.
This film, which is logically about humanitarian workers’ commitment to other people, also explores the question of their selfishness in choosing to do this kind of work. Each person, in their own words, tells us about their feelings and experiences. Openly and straightforwardly, they tell us who they are and speak of their commitment to others, their doubts, their weaknesses and the images that haunt them.
In this film, the humanitarians are not the only ones to bear witness – the women and men who share their private and personal lives also tell their stories. The result is an original and intimate documentary that provides a fascinating insight into the inner worlds of humanitarian workers both in the field and away from the action.