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| Designer Herbert Kasper with "Monsieur Jacques" Jean-Yves Ollivier in Carlos Agulló and Mandy Jacobson's integral Plot For Peace: "There was a similarity between the situation in Algeria and the one I found in South Africa." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Beverly Johnson and Herbert Kasper hosted a special screening of Plot For Peace in New York at Florence Gould Hall with Jean-Yves Ollivier in conversation and an after party at the home of designer Kasper. Among those attending were Ajak Deng, journalist Bill Blakemore, seen in Rodney Ascher's Room 237, Yvonne Durant, Celia Weston, Bill Wright, June Terry and John J. Daniszewski (AP's VP Senior Managing Editor).
In my conversation with Jean-Yves Ollivier at Kasper's, Bertrand Tavernier's Quai d'Orsay (The French Minister) morphed into Volker Schlöndorff's Diplomatie (Diplomacy), while Albert Camus' mother and his Algerian roots were stated as influencing him.
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| Jean-Yves Ollivier with Nelson Mandela: "I did it because I happened to be in South Africa and I knew all the leaders of the region." |
Carlos Agulló and Mandy Jacobson's Plot For Peace lifts one layer of the veil around the mysterious "Monsieur Jacques", whose private diplomatic endeavors resulted in the release of Nelson Mandela and, ultimately, in the end of Apartheid in South Africa. Ollivier reveals himself as the mastermind who knew most of the leaders in the region through his work as a businessman and decided to facilitate seemingly impossible negotiations. The documentary starts out showing him leaning over a game of solitaire. "It's my little secret," he says, and "it's like the world."
South Africa in the Eighties he describes as people living in "a world out of time," reminiscent of the US in the Fifties. The cold war conflict heating up with Cuban troops in Angola appears here as a magnificent challenge to Ollivier. From Winnie Mandela to Jean-Christophe Mitterand (advisor on African affairs to his father, former President of France François Mitterrand), Plot For Peace features an impressive array of interviews, and yet much of the mystery remains. How did Ollivier actually do it? He smiles and disguises as he reveals.
Mandela was released on February 11, 1990 and two days later was addressing the world from inside Soweto Stadium. Ollivier was there and he recounts in the film "One of many in a joyous crowd. Mandela doesn't know a thing about me, nothing about my story which links us secretly. Never mind. The cards have perfectly aligned. The game is over. We won. What will be the next game?"
Anne-Katrin Titze: Everybody here seems very impressed by your actions.
Jean-Yves Ollivier: Not you?
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| Jean-Yves Ollivier with Australian model/activist Ajak Deng: "I am most inspired by people who are looking for peace." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
AKT: Oh, absolutely. No need to change shoes with Ajak Deng. On another note, did you have any role models to do what you did? Or were you always your own role model?
JYO: I am not looking for a [role] model because I would never be a model. The people who are unknown are as important as the people who are on top. At that moment they are trying to do reconciliation, so there is no such thing as a model because it is a chain of people. The chain itself should be our model, not one individual.
AKT: Were you ever inspired by one person in particular, or not really?
JYO: Not really. I am most inspired by people who are looking for peace. I am very attached to the French philosopher Albert Camus who was, like me, from Algeria and who was in the middle of the conflict in Algeria. His brain was telling him to support one party, his heart was telling him that he should support the other. And where do you stand? He had this extraordinary sentence where he says: "Between justice and my mother, if I have to choose, I always choose my mother."
AKT: Did you see the film Diplomatie, which just came out?
JYO: Yes, yes, that's the film about the speech. You are talking about Quai d'Orsay?
AKT: No, not the Tavernier film. I am talking about Volker Schlöndorff's movie on the negotiation to save Paris from being destroyed by the Nazis.
JYO: Yes, by the Consul of Sweden.
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| Journalist Bill Blakemore with Jean-Yves Ollivier at Herbert Kasper's Plot For Peace after party Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
AKT: Precisely that. I had a conversation with Volker about exactly that topic you brought up with Camus. Only he said the opposite of Camus. If he had the decision to save his family or Paris, he would choose Paris.
JYO: Terrible to have that decision, can you imagine? Both are respectful, and both would understand that the other [decision] is respectable.
AKT: What are you working on now?
JYO: Oh, I cannot talk about it.
AKT: Sudan?
JYO: I cannot talk about it now. But I will. I have my foot on the ground.
Earlier in the evening, Ollivier talked in the theater with PMK's Marian Koltai-Levine about his family background and the involvement in Plot For Peace that chronicles his influence on the end of Apartheid in South Africa.
Jean-Yves Ollivier: I am from Algeria, what we call "pieds-noirs". I was from French descent but I was born in Algeria. In 1962, we had to leave our country because we were not able to find a peaceful solution between the Arab world and our world, our community. In three months, one million of French Algerians had to leave the country. Not one remained in Algeria. There was a similarity between the situation in Algeria and the one I found in South Africa.
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| How did Jean-Yves Ollivier actually do it? He smiles and disguises as he reveals. |
I was just trying to avoid a disaster where instead of building a future together, two communities fight each other. And victory, or peace, only comes when one is destroyed by the other. When we look at the conflicts today, people have to think about it. Arms are not always the solution to solve a conflict. Dialogue is more important. I hope this movie opens a window to the future. You know, in every businessman there is a diplomat hidden inside.
It was just like a car accident. I was in South Africa and I was facing a car accident. What do you do in that case? You stop your own vehicle, you get out, and you don't worry that your trousers are going to be dirty or that the woman who is waiting for you for dinner has made a soufflé. You do what you have to do. You act because it is human nature to help others who are in a crash. I have done nothing else but that. I did it because I happened to be in South Africa and I knew all the leaders of the region. So why not use that?
Jean-Yves Ollivier is the chair of the Brazzaville Foundation's Board of Trustees with HRH Prince Michael of Kent as its patron. Ollivier received The Order of Good Hope, the highest honour from the South African government, not once, but twice. From the last apartheid President, P.W. Botha, in 1987, and from Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected President, in 1995.
Plot For Peace opens in New York on October 31.
