At first glance, one might tend to turn away from the sight of stitches closing a wound in human flesh. But this bit of suturing instead piques viewers’ curiosity. The lightning-quick scenes command attention. Bomb-like, muffled blasts of sound contrast with stately and encouraging instrumental music. Through a confusion of blurred, then focused, images and jagged flashes of light, the pattern of the wound emerges. Calmly, methodically, the sewing continues, the stitches following the odd curves of the gash. Then, faintly, tattooed words become visible on the skin.
An attentive observer will first make out the name of a country: Kosovo. As the mending concludes, the camera pulls back. We see that the stitching maps the borders separating Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia.
The cartography speaks volumes. The surgery is helping to heal the torn borders between countries. The map sewn on its fleshlike canvas figuratively represents what the sponsoring organization—Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)—is all about. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning group, headquartered in France, provides medical care to hot spots throughout the world during times of warfare and natural catastrophe.
Once the full map is seen on screen, a supered Doctors Without Borders ID appears on the bottom right corner of the picture.
Titled "Borderline," this :30 was directed by Marcel Langenegger of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films for agency Advico Young & Rubicam, Zurich, Switzerland. Langenegger’s support team at Propaganda included: Colin Hickson, VP, commercial division; Trevor Macy, COO, head of production; executive producer Shelly Townsend; producer Salli Shrewsbury; and production supervisors Diana Vance and Sara Barrett. The spot was shot by DP Scott Galinsky. Mike Bell was first assistant director.
The core creative duo for Advico Young & Rubicam consisted of creative director Martin Speilman and producer Michela Truemepi.
The spot was edited by Fernando Villena of Brass Knuckles, Venice, Calif. Michael Berk and Bond Schoeffel served as assistant editor and producer, respectively, for Brass Knuckles. Colorist was Arnold Ramm of Pacific Data Post, Santa Monica. Audio mixer was Eric Ryan of RavensWork, Venice.
Venice-based Machine Head contributed to the project via composer Chris Neilman, sound designer Chris Smith and producers Gabrielle Dotson and Vicki Melanson.
Doctors Without Borders was launched in ’71 by a group of French doctors who had worked in the Biafran war. The doctors felt that aid organizations were at times too slow to bring medical relief and were hampered by restrictions that kept them from denouncing abuses and injustices. The group’s first humanitarian effort was to treat earthquake victims in Nicaragua in ’72. It now sends approximately 2,000 people a year to provide immediate medical care to war refugees and victims of natural disasters, famine and diseases such as meningitis in Nigeria, tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and AIDS in Thailand.
The Nobel Peace Prize was bestowed upon the organization in October ’99. The award recognized not only the medical attention provided by the group, but also its ability to deal with the politics of providing aid and helping to make sure that, despite those politics, medical and nutritional relief reached victims in a timely manner.
