COP15 Cultural Opening Ceremony

7/12-2009 by Marie Sauer-Johansen

More than 2000 delegates watched the four-minute long film ‘Please Help the World’ when COP15 opened this morning. Thousands of other delegates watched the opening on screens in meeting rooms at the Bella Center.

The film is directed by Danish director Mikkel Blaabjerg Poulsen, who has aimed for maximum dramatic effect.

“We have made a film which speaks to the heart rather than to the brain,” he says.

The film shows a six-year old girl who, after watching news reports on climate change, has a nightmare in which she tries to escape floods, tornadoes and droughts. She wakes up and begs politicians to “please help the world” in a touching scene on top of a skyscraper.

“I hope that the film can affect politicians in a positive way, so that they may raise their goals a little higher, because their emotions have been touched,” says Mr. Poulsen, who has chosen an dramatic violin soundtrack by Italian composer Davide Rossi to underscore the film's message.

The film is produced at Danish production company Zentropa RamBUk.

After the film, the stage was lit up, and the Danish National Girls Choir filed on to the stage in green silk skirts.

The choir sang the first performance of the six-minute composition “All life is your life”, composed and accompanied by legendary Danish jazz trumpet player Palle Mikkelborg.

The composition is an imaginative blend of three well-known songs. ‘The Blue Anemone’, by Danish poet Kaj Munk, the Faroese song ‘Tá ið teir sóu landið' and the Greenlandic song ‘Ilaami unnulermat’. The lyrics also include an English translation of a text by Norwegian poet Olav H. Hauge, about the healing power of music.

Especially the Danish song 'the blue anemone' conveys the hope and strength needed to reach a new cliamte deal.

“There is a mood of hope in this song – the verse from the Danish song is about a small flower breaking through the frosty ground in spring. It’s a very nice picture of hope,” says Michael Bojesen, conductor of the choir.

The goose-bump raising performance included two guest sopranos, a girl from the Faroese Islands and a girl from Greenland, reflecting the cultural variety of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Following the cultural part of the opening ceremony, the negotiations were opened by political speakers including Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Yvo De Boer, Chairman of the IPCC Rajenda K. Pachauri and COP15 President Connie Hedegaard.

'All life is your life' and an updated version of the film will also feature in the ceremony marking the opening of the high-level segment of COP15 on December 15.