The new trailer for Sergio, a film on Sérgio Vieira de Mello, a United Nations diplomat who was assassinated by al-Qaeda terrorists during a hotel bombing in Baghdad in 2003, looks like the kind of inspirational and politically charged biopic that could make waves.
The film will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28, followed by a release on Netflix on April 17.
Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, who starred as infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar on the first two seasons of Narcos, plays the title character, who is described at the start of the trailer as “the world’s Mr. Fix it” and “the most powerful official in U.N. history.”
“The question is what to do with all that power,” Sergio says right before he is shown using the access he is afforded as a U.N. diplomat to help people around the world who are suffering. According to Slate, Sergio was “sent by [Secretary-General of the U.N.] Kofi Annan to reanimate the U.N. presence in Iraq.”
Edited throughout the trailer, title cards also label Sergio as a “humanitarian, negotiator, leader, renegade, father, radial, idealist and target.”
Featured in the trailer, too, is breakout Cuban actress Ana de Armas (Knives Out), who portrays Carolina Larriera, Sergio’s girlfriend. She was also injured in the bombing but survived. In one scene, Carolina asks Sergio why it has to be him that goes to Iraq. He responds that it is because he wants to see the country become free.
It might be wise to brush up a little on some of the things that were happening in Iraq 17 years ago and how the U.N. was called in to support the United States, but even if you decide to see Sergio without knowing too much history, the film seems like it’s going to fill you in properly – at least from Sergio’s perspective.