From Afghanistan to Cannes: how Jude Law joined film-maker's campaign for a world day of peace

Ten-year drive to spread the word started in a field near Salisbury.It was the day movie celebrity met world peace. Jude Law yesterday swept into the Cannes film festival to explain why he was helping a documentary-maker who for the last 10 years has campaigned for an official day of ceasefire and non-violence.

Law said he had become a “sounding board” and “therapist” to campaigner Jeremy Gilley and ended up travelling with him to Afghanistan to help spread his message for a world peace day to be held every year, on September 21.

By any standards it has been a remarkable campaign. From having the idea in a field in Salisbury 10 years ago, Gilley has been on an almost manic one-man mission to travel the world and garner support. A UN resolution was passed in 2001 to support the day and it helped to lead to more than 1.4 million children in Afghanistan being vaccinated against polio.

Throughout his campaigning and travelling Gilley has been filming, and the result is the documentary The Day After Peace, which had its world premiere in Cannes last night.

Law and Gilley explained their motives at a somewhat incongruous venue – a lavish, high-security hotel marquee on the Cannes beach, a place of private yachts, champagne and money.

The actor said he had got involved because it was a simple, powerful message and because it was also about film. “I make films and he uses film to spread this message.”

He said he wanted to go to Afghanistan to “feel, smell and see” for himself what was happening there.

“Feeling first-hand the presence of the frontline, being able to feel the hope of the people. There’s a very cynical, violent image of Afghanistan and of course there is the frontline there, but there’s a massive amount of reconstruction and hope.”

He said it was not just about persuading politicians about the cause – it was about negotiating with people on the ground. Law said everyone could do something on the day of peace and challenged one questioner: “What are you going to do on September 21, mate? It’s easy. You apologise to someone you’ve upset, you say thank you to someone or you get a group of people together and you recognise peace. It’s like turning it into a birthday, or turning it into a party of sorts.”

In the documentary, Gilley and Law are filmed chatting, with the former saying he is going to Afghanistan.

“I’m not doing anything in July. Which eight days?” asks Law.

July 20-28, replies Gilley.

“Are you serious?” says Law.

“If you want to come, then come,” says Gilley.

Gilley has also gathered support from big business such as Coca-Cola, Puma and Ben & Jerry’s, and he explores the ethics of that in the film.

The campaign began after Gilley read a book by Frank Barnaby saying that the media had a special responsibility to be careful about what images and thoughts they string together. From that he had the idea of a world peace day – and making a film about it.

He describes the day the then UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, was due to make an announcement on the UN’s support – it was September 11 2001, and there is footage of the event being postponed as it becomes clear that something awful has happened nearby.

The mass polio vaccination in Afghanistan came about after talks with Unicef and the World Health Organisation.

Gilley said he hoped his film would inspire and empower young people to believe that they could do something – everybody can do something, he said.

“You can be an ordinary person with no qualifications and you can have an idea that could save people’s lives.”