The Strangest Dream tells the story of Joseph Rotblat, the history of nuclear weapons and the efforts of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs which he co-founded to halt nuclear proliferation.
Nuclear physicist Joseph Rotblat was branded a traitor and spy after walking away from the Manhattan Project, builders of the first atomic bomb. But, with Bertrand Russell, he went on to help create the modern peace movement and eventually to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
The film takes us from the site of the first nuclear test, in New Mexico, to Cairo, where contemporary Pugwash scientists meet under the cloud of nuclear proliferation, and to Hiroshima, where we see survivors of the first atomic attack. Featuring interviews with contemporaries of Rotblat, members of the Pugwash movement and passionate public figures including Senator Roméo Dallaire, The Strangest Dream demonstrates the renewed threat of nuclear weapons, while encouraging hope through the example of morally engaged scientists and citizens.
“Joseph Rotblat was a truly visionary leader...who did not succumb to panic or despair, and worked persistently to make people and politicians understand the pernicious futility of the arms race.”
- Mikhail Gorbachev
"This documentary is a worthy tribute to a heroic humanitarian and a powerful warning to us all to abolish nuclear weapons or face the ultimate global warming — nuclear holocaust."
- Senator Roméo Dallaire
"Rarely does one experience a truly brilliant and altruistic human being who changed history... Joseph Rotblat achieved this extraordinary feat... This is an imperative history for all to know and understand in this highly unstable political time on this nuclear laced planet."
- Dr. Helen Caldicott
