阿扎瓦德：创建国家的艺术

The Azawadian Revolution and the Dutch Mission in Mali 　　In the summer of 2014, documentary film makers Gabriëlle Provaas and Rob Schröder joined a delegation of the New World Academy to travel with the National Liberation Movement of Azawad (MNLA), which since 2012 has been fighting for the independent state of Azawad—one and a half times the size of France—in the northern, Saharan part of Mali. 　　The resulting documentary—Azawad: The Art of Creating a State—offers a unique insight in the everyday struggle of the Kel Tamasheq (Tuareg), Arab, Fula, and Songhai peoples that have joined the liberation movement. Together with artist Jonas Staal and producer Younes Bouadi, the directors interviewed the movement's provisional government, commanders, strategists, historians, and artists, who explain their endeavors in the “art of creating a state”—a state that, up until today, has not been recognized by any other state in the world. 　　The recent instability in Azawad has attracted the activity of jihadist groups, which in turn led the Malian government to seek help from France as well as the United Nations, which sent an intervention force that includes five hundred Dutch soldiers currently stationed in northern Mali. In the meantime, the liberation movement continues to struggle and seek support for their own independent state. 　　On the occasion of May 5, the Dutch Liberation Day, this documentary film poses several important questions: How does the struggle for self-determination of liberation movements relates to the duty of the UN to protect the sovereignty of both peoples and states? To whose safety and liberation do the Dutch soldiers in the UN mission contribute exactly? And how can artists and filmmakers balance out the limited information on barely mediatized and highly complex conflicts such as these?