Bernard-Henri Lévy

From September 1993 to March 1994, he dedicates himself almost exclusively to the filming of the movie Bosna!. Filmed on the front lines and with the besieged city of Sarajevo, as well as in the fire of battle and the underground cellars sheltering the persecuted civilian population, this film is a unique testimony to the Bosnian tragedy. Bernard-Henri Lévy is accompanied in this adventure by co-director Alain Ferrari, and by his regular travel companion and co-writer for the film Gilles Hertzog. The film is produced by the production company Les Films du Lendemain, founded for the occasion by his father, André Lévy, in association with François Pinault. Director and film critic Gilles Jacob will select it for the category “Un certain regard” at the Festival of Cannes.

In the wake of his film, and in a memorable episode of the major political series Heure de Vérité, hosted by journalists Albert du Roy and Alain Duhamel, BHL comes forth with the idea in May 1994 of a “Sarajevo list” of candidates for the European elections, in an effort to urge Western countries to intervene in favour of the Bosnian Muslims in the civil war. This announcement and the list itself contribute significantly to increasing public opinion in support of Bosnia. Judging that the demands outlined by the Liste had been duly taken into consideration by the traditional political parties, Bernard-Henri Lévy comes out in favour of dissolving the Liste. Some members, including Léon Schwartzenberg, Marina Vlady, and Admiral Sanguinetti, refuse to withdraw, assuming the responsibility to follow through to the elections.

Along with Alain Finkielkraut, André Glucksmann, Jacques Julliard, Pascal Bruckner, and a few others, he founds the CRI (Comité de Réflexion et Intervention), protesting the ongoing massacres not only in Bosnia but also in Algeria and Rwanda. Nobel prize laureate Czelaw Milosz in named honorary President of the CRI.

In the autumn, events in Bosnia, Rwanda and Algeria inspire BHL to write a new book, La Pureté dangereuse (Grasset) in which he develops the concept of a “thirst for purity” and its many forms, including the madness of the Hutu ethnic identity displayed in Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, and anti-Western hatred in an Algeria fraught with massacres at the hands of radical fundamentalists—or, not so long ago, communism and Nazism.