In a world obsessed with the idea of erecting borders, this film explores how nations can be reconciled when you bring them down. This utopian notion was one of the last dreams of Nelson Mandela: creating peace parks in conflict zones between neighboring countries in order to transcend their borders, healing their scars, and avoiding future conflicts.
Today, there are 227 peace park projects. Sixty have already seen the light of day, half of them in Africa.
This film explores the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park linking South Africa with Mozambique, the theater of a civil war involving both countries, which has now become a jointly managed wildlife reserve. The film goes on to look at the Friendship Park straddling Costa Rica and Panama, two countries which abolished their armies to prevent coups. It concludes in Israel, where Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian ecologists dream of transforming a small island into a peace park.
Through the beauty of these shared natural resources, this film opens up fresh horizons and allows us to glimpse a future in which the environment guides diplomacy.
Direction: Caroline Fourest & Fiammetta Venner
Production: ZED, ARTE France