'Zero Tolerance' For Terror At Cannes

The producers behind Al Gore's Nobel Prize winner An Inconvenient Truth, have launched a new heavyweight documentary at Cannes warning of just how easy nuclear weapons are to acquire.

Countdown to Zero, produced by British film-maker Lucy Walker, is currently ruffling feathers right up the political ranks.

Featuring interviews with Ex-Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf, the Former President of Pakistan, and Britain's Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, the film documents how unsecured lumps of uranium in Russia could end up being used by terrorists to destroy cities across the world.

An exclusive interview with Oleg Khintsagov, a Russian jailed for trying to sell uranium to the Al-Qaeda network, explains how the danger spread as a result of the failure of Cold War-era disarmament efforts.

Valerie Plame Wilson, Former CIA Agent is also interviewed in the documentary. She discusses her work on anti-proliferation and how she was targeted by the former US government which unmasked her in the fallout from the invasion of Iraq.

The film features additional interviews by spies, smugglers and scientists.

The term "Zero" in the title refers to the zero tolerance policy which needs to be implemented against nuclear weapons.

The Film makers of Countdown to Zero hope that screening the film will muster support for disarmament, just as An Inconvenient Truth gave momentum to raising awareness of climate change. Commenting at Cannes, Producer Jeff Skoll said he hoped the film would move people to take action.

(BMcN/BMcC)