Rose in hand, He played piano on the zebra, A pretty Polish tune. The zebra danced. The act grew in fame, With offers round the globe But the zebra stayed true to itself And is still black and white. Beatocello, 1981 Mit der Rose in der Hand Spielte er auf dem Zebra Klavier Eine wunderbare polnische Melodie Und das Zebra tanzte dazu Die Nummer wurde weltberühmt Es trafen viele Angebote ein Auch das Farbfernsehen aus der ganzen Welt Zeigte sich interessiert Aber das Zebra blieb sich treu und ist bis heute schwarzweiss. Beatocello, 1981 In BEATOCELLO's UMBRELLA, award-winning director Georges Gachot tells the story of Beat Richner&emdash;pediatric M.D. author, illustrator and concert cellist; from his coming-of-age in Switzerland, to his street performances as a young medical student in the persona of the clown Beatocello; to his founding of five children's hospitals in today's Cambodia. Revered as a national hero, Richner's Herculean efforts have saved the lives of millions of Cambodia's children over the past 20 years, some who have grown up to serve as doctors in his state-of- the-art pediatric hospitals. Now at 64 , Richner continues to practice medicine and travel the world concertizing and singing about his protective red umbrella, which has come to symbolize the health and hope he brought to a grateful nation. Unlike many of his contemporaries who held utopian world views, Beat Richner is one of the few who worked to made his vision a reality. With the participation of King Norodom Sihamoni. "...heart-melting documentary." NEW YORK TIMES "Highly worthwhile study of an amazing Renaissance man who's truly making a difference in Southeast Asia." INTL FILM JOURNAL

What type of medicine do poor countries deserve? In Cambodia, as in all the poor countries of the world, the WHO and UNICEF have for the past 25 years favoured a type of medicine based on "primary health care". For 11 years, the Swiss pediatrician Beat Richner, alias Beatocello, has been championing another vision of humanitarian medicine. The three hospitals he has set up in Cambodia meet European standards and today care for 80% of the country's sick children. 4.5 million children have already been treated there. The film "Money or Blood" shows the clash of two health systems built on conflicting philosophies. For the first time, a camera takes us inside the Cambodian public health service (supported by international organisations) and enables concrete comparisons to be made. Georges Gachot's film brings the impassioned debate between these two worlds into the open and casts new light on a situation which for too long has remained hidden from the public gaze.

In my first film about Dr. Beat Richner, Bach at the Pagoda, he was described by a colleague at Richner's Kantha Bopha hospitals as a veritable locomotive, a man who will leave you trailing behind. It is just as hard for a director to keep up with him. In November 1996, my camera team and I travelled to Cambodia to start shooting Bach at the Pagoda. Dr. Richner had opened his second hospital shortly before. When work began on producing the film three years later &endash; in November 1999 &endash; his third hospital was already standing. It had not been built in Phnom Penh but in Siemreap, close to one of Cambodia's most significant historical sites: the enchanting temple complex of Angkor. There could have been no more impressive setting for my latest film. The new hospital bears the name Jayavarman VII, after the king who, at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century, built a series of Buddhist temples and 102 hospitals. Within just eight years, Dr. Beat Richner's children's hospitals have become a Cambodian institution. More than two million children have received out- and inpatient care, exerting a considerable influence on the future of the country. This new film lets the Cambodians have their say, most notably King Norodom Sihanouk. He honoured Richner's work with an invitation to his birthday party in Phnom Penh; and we were allowed to witness the event with cameraman Matthias Kälin and sound engineer Dieter Meyer. But the most memorable moment of the shooting came on our return to the first Kantha Bopha hospital &endash; three years after our last visit. Waiting patiently at the entrance were hundreds of families and their sick children. The children were like a wave, a nightmare that returns with tidal regularity. It suddenly occurred to me just how many sick children must have gone to the Kantha Bopha hospitals for help. And I felt compelled to ask myself what the last eight years would have been like had it not been for these hospitals and for Beat "Beatocello" Richner. ...And The Beat Goes On is a film about the unstoppable tide of sick children, and about a man who, against all the odds, has had incredible success in stemming it.

In the midst of the Cambodian countryside, not far from Phnom Penh's a pagoda, from which one can hear the sound of a cello playing music by J.S.Bach. The "culture shock" of hearing such eminently European music in such an unmistakably Asian setting is all the greater when it turns out that the performer is a Swiss pediatrician, Beat Richner, a man who has given up everything in order to care for Cambodia's sick children. Alone with his cello in this place of worship in the depths of Asia, Dr. Richner addresses an appeal to the entire world. Cambodia needs help. Since 1991 he has built two hospitals, and each day these are able to assist thousands of destitute children. This encounter with an unusual physician who uses his musical gifts to collect money for his own humanitarian projects, is also an opportunity for discovering the Cambodia of today, a nation that is once again trying to raise its head, with some difficulty.