Secretary-General, at Screening of ‘Invictus’, Says in Coming to United

Nations, Film, Which Seeks to Bridge Divides, Has Come Home

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the screening of Invictus, in conjunction with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 16 March, in New York:

I thank all involved in making this screening possible.

What a perfect time to see this movie.

Just four months before the first celebration of Nelson Mandela International Day, on 18 July, just three months before the opening kick in this year’s World Cup football tournament in South Africa on 11 June, and just five days before the annual observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which marks the anniversary of the massacre of non-violent protestors at Sharpeville in 1960.

And what an appropriate place to see this film: here at the United Nations, which so strongly supported the people of South Africa in their struggle against the inhumanity of apartheid.

The triumph over racist domination was a victory for all South Africans.  But it also helped shape the conscience of the international community.  One might even say that Invictus, in coming to the United Nations, has come home.

In certain respects, we all know how the story ends.  South Africa successfully transformed itself into a non-racial democratic State, and did so without the violence that had been feared.

That said, I don’t know the outcome of the rugby match, so there’s a bit of suspense there.

But I have seen the preview.  One scene already stands out in my mind.

We see the captain of the Springboks rugby team, played by Matt Damon, visiting Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.

The captain is trying to get a feel for what Mandela experienced in the nearly three decades in which he was deprived of his freedom.  He is trying to stand in someone else’s shoes, trying to understand something that is completely alien to him.

There, in that one scene, we see the essence of what we are up to here at the United Nations in our work for human rights.

We see an attempt to bridge the lines that so often divide.  We see the will of one person to get inside the mind, hopes and fears of another.  We see the golden rule: do unto others…

In South Africa, we saw fear and bitterness give way to reconciliation.  This didn’t just happen; individuals made it possible -– they took chances to make it so, despite profound doubt.

I also don’t want to reveal where the movie’s title comes from.  I will say only that it is from a poem.  One of its key lines -– which could often serve as the United Nations own motto -- is this: “My head is bloody, but unbowed”.

You will hear more of the poem in the movie.  Enjoy the show.

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