Blix Not Bombs

Greta Stocklassa – Director’s Statement

There are moments in life we remember forever. My first was 9/11. Although I was only a kid I can still recall the exact emotion I had when I saw the twin towers fall to the ground. I felt fear.

While making this film, me and Hans watched another life changing moment happening right in front of us – the Russian invasion of Ukraine. My reaction was preparing a survival kit – buying food, flashlights, iodine tablets… just to be ready for the worst.

But I still was concerned and wanted answers to why we are failing to live in peace. Are we doomed to repeat our mistakes? And this time I wasn’t asking only for myself and my generation, because another life changing moment happened to me – I found out I’m pregnant and all that we had been talking about became even more urgent.

When I reached out to Hans three years ago and he invited me for tea to his home in Stockholm, I was honestly surprised. This high profile diplomat wasn’t important only for the fate of Saddam Hussain, of American soldiers or Iraqi civilians. He stood close to events that had an impact on the safety of the world, and shaped the world as we know it today.

Though the Iraq war is one of the most notorious conflicts of the 21 st century, few have ever heard of Hans Blix. The story of an unobtrusive civil servant who could have prevented the Iraq war was never told in film, no books were written about him and children don’t hear about him in school. Today, Hans is 94 years old and this is the last opportunity to listen to what he has to say. He has never given a more thorough, sincere and intimate interview than to me.

Blix’s person embodies the clash between high politics, world-class events and peaceful days of old age, with the slow expectation of the imminent end. Combining the methods of comprehensive interview and observation of the situations from Blix’s personal life, we are painting a complex portrait of an aging diplomat and a man ready to leave this world. But the main question we discuss is universal to all of us: Where stands our personal responsibility for mankind and for the world?