Is a catastrophe civil war proxy war coronavirus islam is tara from syria that alone the drowning of those seeking asylum only this week and now compounded by bitter political strife in tripolis u. N. Backed government joining me now via skype from rome is acting special representative and head of the United Nations support mission in libya 70 Turco Williams 70 were going to going underground before i ask anything about the political situation obviously people are going to want to know how coronavirus its obviously impacting hard on britain when the highest per capita or death rate how is it affecting libya which is obviously the subject of civil strife and a proxy war well the coronavirus situation in libya is quite so worrying you know we we believe that it is stired clean out of control in the country the number of confirmed cases is close to or at 25000 today which over Something Like a lab and 1000 cases are active and there are nearly 400 deaths that have been recorded houser hungary figures how are they getting the figures given that its libya is itself divided into 2 or 3 countries im not sure defacto so we are so that the figures are produced you know by the authorities w. H. O. Works across the country it is youre right there are divided institutions but w. H. O. Is a lead said a nationwide response and liaises directly with the different institutions the ministries of health and their National Committee that is the charge of the coping response but youre right i mean we do believe that. The pandemic in terms of the numbers is there it is underestimated and this is because there are also things like there are persistent shortages in testing capabilities of course you know the Health Care System has been devastated over the last 9 years beset by you know conflict you know infrastructure deterioration and that has meant that you know its sort of helps crippled the response the humanitarian agencies are working in these very sort of difficult circumstances we also of course salute the very courageous Libyan Health care workers who are on the front line. And and and you know the focus needs to be on prevention and and also in terms of frankly the government response east and west you know ensuring that the funding that has been allocated you know goes goes through the right channels and into the Health Care System well post conflict funding. Has always been no god traversal i mean in libya had one of the best Health Care Systems in the world serving the best in africa under gadhafi what is the situation in libya 9 years after David Cameron was telling us here in britain that this was a victory that nato had secured to overthrow the good afy government i mean explain how theres a west and an east and how there may be elections and why the Prime Minister might be a resigning right so i mean its no secret that libya experienced incredible fragmentation following the revolution and fragmentation chaos and division. And sort of a continuing series of wars and conflict and unfortunately. Unabated blatant for. An interference in the country and so. It has been a real surprise foreign interference in by britain in the country i mean foreign interference after the aerial bombardment of libya by britain yes there is there is you know foreign intervention has been a think so it in and it unfortunately continues to this day now where where are we given you know the the past 9 years what are we looking at now. We are looking at a country that where that where the situation is just not sustain the military options has been used in libya and it hasnt worked quite clearly. 5 there is no one party that can militarily conquer libya and assumed power through the gut. The economic tool is not working or Oil Blockades do not work they only lead to increasing immiseration of the population and thats what were seeing now so it is not therefore very surprising that libyans are going to the streets in the midst of a Global Pandemic to express their frustrations to to demonstrate against you know institutions and governments that are simply not delivering services not not providing for their citizens so he was in fact to mention not to mention the rampant sort of corruption so this princess to you know weve tried so the military tools been tried the economic tool has been tried as a work so whats left in the tool chest dialogue political dialogue and you asked me about. Jenny president siraj announcement that he intends to hand power over to a new executive authority at the end of october i think that this is quite a courageous decision that mr soros has taken. Its also an indication that you know real change is needed weeks elaine over the last sort of 4 or 5 months a constituency of change emerge in the country and that is why we believe that its time in short order within the next month to resume under u. N. Our auspices a fully inclusive political dialogue i mean we only hear really about libya in nato nation media because of the refugee crisis and refugees drowning only in the past few days 123 drowned in the mediterranean off the shores i mean is it your experience and i have to say president obama has regretted intervention in libya or at least made some announcement to that effect in other open a slave markets in libya his eyes his day ash coming from syria in libya its only about a year ago that the United States was bombing libya to try and get rid of isis tash so look. What you have in libya yes this is an overall deterioration of the security situation as its been persistent but it you know it is nevertheless quite alarming you have a country where the borders cannot be secured so yes i mean and by the way you have the influx now of mr you know about some weapons coming in because of the foreign interference any foreign sponsors of the conflict are pouring weapons and to a country which by the way is already awash in weapons you know libya doesnt need more weapons so and if these weapons fall into the wrong hands yes indeed libya is and will continue to pose a threat to then the neighboring countries and and the wider Mediterranean Region so and you asked about the situation refugees. I grants trafficking. Yes indeed that is a huge problem and these human rights abuses and the treatment of refugees migrants and Asylum Seekers you know as as well as by the way other very vulnerable population groups including internally displaced people of libya there are over 400000 libyans who had to flee their homes so i mean this is. One crisis compounds the other and we heard it described once has a good daffy running libya and it was africas richest per capita nation the removal by nato of good afy was like the removal of a cork and this refugee crisis migration crisis has been. An effect of that nato bombardment is that your understanding well i look there were refugees and migrants and what do you have prior to the revolution there was there were there was trafficking that was occurring prior existence very loose in a time to thousands there were tens of thousands of people. In the mediterranean this scale right and like for instance this year weve seen over more than 8400 migrants and refugees have been intercepted at sea and returned to libya just this year and many have been placed into detention there are of course women and children and those very vulnerable population 5 and Something Like 454 migrants and refugees were intercepted and returned and and you know thats. Thats a huge challenge for our humanitarian agencies is one problem you face and i know that their boss of the u. N. Political mission doesnt salami quit this year according to some sources because of stress isnt one problem you face the Security Council members russia and. Ana they just dont trust any weston elements in libya in fact they are going to the global south as well they dont want any of the former colonial power i know youre speaking to me from rome they dont want anyone else because they dont trust the motives of those who sought to destroy good office libya well i mean you know i think youd have to ask those Member States what i observed is that help for its a united Security Council when it comes to the solutions for libya the libyan people need to stay need to hear that the International Community is joining hands together to help them overcome their traditions to help them rebuild their country to help them bring their country back you know it it has the Largest Oil Reserves in africa it has a a beautiful coastline it has a small population well educated you know theres theres no reason why libyans cant come together to chip forge a much Brighter Future for their country but they need the International Community also to come together to help them in this regard acting in special representative thank you. After the break history repeating itself we look back at another Mass Movement of people fleeing war with acclaimed actor julian said and his new film the painted bird explores the horrors experienced by persecuted people in world war 2 through the eyes of a child all the same or can have a part to have going on the ground. Both. Of us. Last time we chased. Each one of them carrying 20 kilos d of drugs. First offense. Is the main thing. They have. This is for me. I dont know. They dont. Break right. Now well. Join me every thursday on the alex im unsure when ill be speaking to us of the world of politics. Im show business ill see you then. A new gold rush is underway and gonna thousands of ill equipped workers off flocking to the gold fields hoping to strike it rich. As. Children a tool in between gold. My family was very poor i thought i was doing my best to get back to see which side will have the strongest appeal. Welcome back in part one we heard from the u. N. In libya about the plight of what was once africas richest per capita nation led by Moammar Gadhafi the nato war and it is supported by the conservative liberal Democrat Coalition and backed by the u. K. Labor party arguably catalyzed not only the destruction of that country but a refugee crisis that still kills scores in the mediterranean a new film the painted bird deals with a very different refugee crisis that of jews fleeing persecution during the 2nd world war and depicts the unspeakable horrors inflicted on a young boy attempting to return to his family something that apparently led to mass walkouts at film festivals in venice and toronto the film is out now and going underground Deputy Editor charlie cook spoke to one of the films leads acclaimed actor julian sense. Judy and thank you sandra coming on going underground to start by telling me about the painted by well the paines it does a film based on Jesse Kaczynski is 1960 s. Novel it is an odyssey it tells a story of a boy looking for his family through the hinterland or recent europe. Twilight the 2nd world war and its the story is told through a series of and kansas with different people who represent different aspects of our glorious humanity but im going to be. Just a voice. Not just part. Of. The whole but go meatless that. My character plays i play a pharma and in that Tiny Community see the priest of the. Community played by Harvey Keitel tell who is one of my clients as moonshine i make hooch spirits in the woods who is ailing has taken the boy and he has rescued him from the nazis who were going to kill him but adi ask if i may take care of the boy because i can use a hand on the farm and the priest allows me to do this but my character is not sympathetic to the boy he abuses him he doesnt represent what i might call goodness he is the west kind of narcissist. I cant say i enjoyed playing him but i enjoyed the experience because i contributed something to this. Rather important must work in my view i wanted to ask if you saw the film as kind of a nihilistic walk because a lot of people have mentioned that there doesnt seem to take a side especially in your specific story you know a kind of pad with a godly cat and seems almost powerless in the face of what seems like evil well i dont think its nihilistic and that the point of view of the storyteller the direct as a cipher for kaczynski is an observer and its like looking at colonel. Picasso is great in a painting made after the bombing of the town in the spanish civil war or the the kings things the drawings and images created by god in response to early a conflict between the french and spanish or elements baulch. Crazing sort of his version of hell on earth i mean its an observation i dont think it seeks to be nihilistic you 9 understanding of the woods did you read the novel before you took part in the film as a kind of respond i think i read the novel when i was at drama school in the late 1970 s. When vance love sent me this script he only sent me the script from my chat but he sent me images. Of what hed already shot he was shooting it in Chronological Order because he wanted the boy said to physically grow during the film and he showed it over 2 to 3 years so the risk of the boy does physically change vast left it seen me in the Czech Republic when i did a presentation of a show ive been touring about harold pinto its called a celebration of americans or something John Malkovich and i devised together and. Well originally with harold and he had seen that and i think thats why he wanted me to play this this character i mean it was shot in november almost 2 years ago. In something bohemia and the little farmhouse they found as the location was a deeply creepy place it felt but in a axis act by reacting so that environment and that location gave me a great deal to to work with you know in the 1st of this program weve spoken to someone from the u. N. In libya and you mention the horrors inflicted on this child is a wider point about the horrors inflicted on civilians fleeing war that this film can illustrate charlie i think is very contemporary and that and that because theres no nothing is glamorized in this its a very hard and unflinching unswerving observation of this boys story which absolutely it relates to many situations and areas of the world today and some of them very close to united northwest europe where we are living so comfortably in spite of. Kobe didnt economic hardships compared to what these people are suffering. You know it were in paradise also on that point is the films not just about the suffering of the child but also the racism and kind of like the creeping suspicion ifills which is also something faced by migrants i was aware of it when i saw the film within my chat its quite clear that the congregation very suspicious of is this far and its not over its not a state whether hes jewish whether hes a gypsy i mean in my chapter it becomes clear the end of the film but these phobia towards the resentment of his presence is very clear and very troubling merits of mankind as this film yeah and i actually want to talk about the kind of the location in that the national asked i dont because the language in the film is into slavic which meant specifically to not tied to any specific National Identity to find that challenge to walk in in that language there were many challenges the language was simple i have quite a good for donna. And i was i was able to learn it. Somewhere is that speaking in that dialogue. Word has allowed me to get further away from myself and as it were yeah i just want to talk about the films lineage in a way because it seems to draw on like fellinis rhyme i can say to me come and say in fact one of the actors in common is they have to pay is in this film i like to be 30. 00 deliberately not yes im told in kosovo and films lets talk about talking to be aware that lineage going into it certainly. Aware of the coast ski influence on. Us love because in the conversation he came up and i think it not until i saw the film at venice was i fully aware of how it was in some ways part of the International Cinema of which includes the material the material you are youve referred to the speaking event as not of the discussion around this film in the press has been about some who walk out venice and in places like toronto your costar statens cause god said that its absolutely necessary to be controversial when making films that you gave that sentiment in the context of the all caps i dont think is necessary to be controversial i dont think any of the sets actually controversial although both stellan and i have been in film and which have been considered controversial i think that it doesnt pull its punches and it doesnt sort of soften the blow to the impact of the dreadful things which are visited this boy being 3 hours being black and white its very very intense i mean its difficult to watch so im sympathetic if somebody wants to walk out and get some fresh air and then come back you know not come back and but in terms of the reporting of the walkouts i think that was a journalists story he was looking for an airing goal to create some cocky controversy prison so it is sort of banal but there is a real intellectual moral. Contents which is worthy of debate and is difficult to absorb i think thats very legitimacy. You obviously famously in the killing fields about another maybe the dalles myth that genocide and some of the things to think your perspective towards these kind of horrors that changed well in the killing fields was made in 1983 and i was i think i was 23 or 4 at the time and id never been a star. Relisten to be nice to walking but no so far east and to go to thailand to visit the refugee camps tolerate come body and borders which were being pretty troubled we werent filming that but it was part of the research. We did before filming commenced and these these camps were clearly patrolled by come i rish cutlery and to be in such close proximity so this sort of monstrousness was chilling. Disturbing and illuminating i dont think theres been a period since then when it during any given year one hasnt had to revisit and observe such conditions and ass issues from people i mean the breaks debate in. Britain was the most appalling revelation in my view of the very scenes which were not discussing just finally you mention painterly i just would like to know what your message be to politicians and maybe thinking about saving thing to saving then hes kind of funding the arts or in the current virus well i think its absolutely imperative. You know if it seems to be considered just. Another area of employment or is in fact it should be elevated to National Treasure status because it is they embodiment of the interest tegra and Cultural Property of. Of the United Kingdom that good that somehow i think there are many maybe theres a view that politicians are like see that it disappear because you know it may have lost some of its teeth as a petri dish of protest and revolts but its such an important element in all our lives even for people for people who dont go to the theatre so much is generated by that and it seems. To salute. Abdication of responsibility that more hasnt been this is the need in this shooting of and committed help to endure oh thank you so much. Thank you john julian sounds that speaking to going on the ground up you have charlie cook and the painted but is available in select cinemas in the u. K. Now and all the more thats in the show will be back on monday until then join the underground by following us on Twitter Facebook you tube instagram and sometimes. At the bo diddley kiss near the city really to show you. Thank you just because suitably. Stood. With that i suppose you noticed us they have something that. You know none of the stupina bow episodes didnt go to see you just you sure the. Slayer during your force where you could be near my stuff in the studio if not thoughts about spirits i didnt do it was more sinister experiment then you know. If de gea clue. Shows the stress of school issuance for you to post to a pub ice to move. To a store and kick your butt is. Best geysers find a Survival Guide to stay single malt to start simply to travel all these are. The sure theyre going to get it back. Oh heck no. Repatriations would get arrested 7 years. Philip a separate us kaiser report. Its certainly a moscow time in the headlines this morning europe scrambles to deal with a rapid surge in coronavirus cases with spain becoming the latest nation to reimpose measures while governments elsewhere also while new restrictions are ahead of the flu season. 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