A powerful short film was one of the centre pieces of the 9th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, of which Lancia is proud to be the main sponsor. Chaired by dignitaries Mikhail Gorbachev and Walter Veltroni, the main theme of the Summit is: Human Rights: for a world without violence.

A powerful short film was one of the centre pieces of the 9th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, of which Lancia is proud to be the main sponsor. Chaired by dignitaries Mikhail Gorbachev and Walter Veltroni, the main theme of the Summit is: Human Rights: for a world without violence. The Summit is being held this year in Paris instead of Rome – where previous meetings have been held – to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Other Nobel Laureates attending include Frederik Willem De Klerk, Lech Walesa, John Hume, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, and Betty Williams, together with guests of honour Bono, Ingrid Bétancourt, Kerry Kennedy, and Sein Win.

Lancia is supporting the Summit because the Nobel Laureates are this year backing a special person who received the Nobel Prize 17 years ago. Now a prisoner in her homeland, Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. This Summit is dedicated to her.

With the collaboration of the Nobel Laureates, Lancia has produced the brief film that helps to communicate a message of peace to the world. The 30-second film was premiered today at the Summit and subsequently presented to the international press at Terrazza Martini, a historic partner of Lancia, which offered its prestigious Paris premises for the occasion as a sign of support for the initiative.

“The film we are presenting this evening was produced in honour of all those who put their lives at stake in the hopes of making the world a better place,” says Olivier Francois, Chief Executive Officer of Lancia Automobiles. “I am referring in particular to those men and women who are still prisoners, like Aung San Suu Kyi. The mutual objectives of a car maker and of those who fight for peace and human rights can be attained if both are willing to send a courageous and righteous message. We believe strongly in this. We at Lancia also want to make a difference.”

The Film

This brief film opens on a series of Lancia Deltas, the official Summit car, all black, arriving at the Hotel de Ville in Paris, the site of the meeting. The Nobel Prize Laureates participating in the Summit get out one by one. The door to the last Delta, which, unlike the others is white, opens, but no one gets out: the seat is empty. The person who should have been there is not.

There is a moving musical soundtrack as a background for the speaker’s touching words: There are people who have been fighting forever. Men and women who lived their life so that we could live ours. These are the bravest warriors who ever existed. We would like to hug them all for a day. But there is one hug we miss. This movie is dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace prize winner, a prisoner in her own country.

This idea was borne spontaneously out of the collaboration between Lancia management and Summit organisers while the presence and support of Lancia was still being defined. It was later further enhanced by the support and appreciation of the international figures participating in the Summit.

The statement of Mikhail Gorbachev

“I wish to express to all Nobel Laureates and the organisers my desire that the 9th Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, as has happened in the past, renews its call for the liberation of our colleague, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has suffered 13 years of house arrest. Her freedom would open a road to a dialogue which is the only way for Burma to achieve national reconciliation - so desired by its people and the outside world. It is for this reason that I have supported the idea of launching, together with the Nobel Laureates present at this Paris Summit, an international campaign to attract global public opinion on this issue of our colleague’s liberation.”