Jean Ziegler, The Optimism of Willpower

“Every 5 minutes, a child starves somewhere in the world”. This is what Jean Ziegler forcefully denounces in an attempt to put a stop to this “organised crime.” Nicolas Wadimoff, Ziegler’s former student and now a film director, takes us in the “master’s” footsteps to Cuba and examines his convictions, giving us a chance to witness his thought process as it develops. He films politics head on! Gramsci’s phrase that inspired the documentary’s title – “We need to combine the pessimism of the intellect with the optimism of the will” – isn’t entirely exact. The literal translation from the Italian is “I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will”… the slight alteration reflects the subtlety of this seemingly classic film. This extract from a letter to Gramsci’s brother, written from prison in 1929, symbolises the conception of a man, alone, facing up to the fascist “monster”. Jean Ziegler, portrayed on a "mission" in the heart of international institutions, also prompts a different kind of “uprising of consciousness”.

Pierre Oscar Lévy
Director