In Geneva, you can encounter Henry Dunant on every street corner. There is a Henry Dunant Avenue, a Henry Dunant College, a Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, and a Henry Dunant Society. Like every other Genevan, I knew the basics of his life: founder of the Red Cross, born in Geneva, even that his birthday, May 8, is used to celebrate Red Cross and Red Crescent Day all around the world.
In the early 2000s, a production company asked me to help a well-known Swiss director write the screenplay of a TV biopic about Dunant. Unfortunately, after a year of work, the producers discovered they hadn’t raised enough money to shoot it. But I soon received a call from the director of the Red Cross Museum, who had read…
