Watchers of the Sky

Beautifully stylised documentary that uses animation, archive footage and interviews to shed light on the historical quest for international justice. Telling the life story of Raphael Lemkin, the film shows the vision of remarkable protagonists in their struggle against genocide and crimes against humanity.

Polish Jew Raphael Lemkin lost his family during the Second World War and fled to the US. After the war he devoted himself to the cause of penalising genocide at an international level. He coined the term ‘genocide’ and spent the rest of his life championing ratification of the UN Genocide Convention.

Interspersed with his life story, Watchers of the Sky follows four other visionaries: people who are passionately engaged in putting an end to large-scale violence and bringing to trial the chief offenders. Apart from Samantha Power, former war correspondent in Bosnia and UN ambassador for the United States, we see Emmanuel Uwurukundo, who survived the Rwandan genocide and now provides humanitarian aid to refugees from Darfur. The film also zooms in on Benjamin Ferencz, former prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, and Luis Moreno-Ocampo, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. An inspiring insight into the quest for justice.