Utterly shocking and gutsy documentary
Created: September 2, 2012 Last Updated: September 2, 2012
Mads Br?gger goes undercover as a European ambassador to expose the blood diamond trade in Africa. (Courtesy of Drafthouse Films)
Ambassadors are generally addressed as ?Your Excellency,? which is nice. They can also carry briefcases loaded with diamonds through customs, no questions asked. That is even cooler.
It is definitely what mad Mads Br?gger had in mind when he set out to buy a diplomatic post. His resulting misadventures are documented in The Ambassador, Br?gger?s latest gutsy cinematic provocation, which opens this Friday in New York at the IFC Center.
If you have seen Br?gger?s The Red Chapel (and I really hope you have), you will be familiar with his fearless brand of documentary filmmaking.
The plan this time is to buy an ambassadorship representing Liberia in the Central African Republic (CAR) through a ?diplomatic broker.? (He seeks the services of two such dodgy individuals, one of whom periodically sends me head-scratchingly bizarre emails ever since I covered The Ambassador at Sundance.)
\>");Once credentialed, Br?gger will establish a match factory as a cover for his unquestionably illegal diamond smuggling operation. The shocking thing is he pretty much goes about doing exactly that for expos? purposes, but there are complications.
For the record, these are very definitely blood diamonds he is talking about?there just isn?t any other kind in the CAR. That means the politically connected mine owner Br?gger starts negotiating with is a pretty scary character. Indeed, there are considerable risks for Br?gger in this masquerade, including to life and limb.
Frankly, Ambassador would be hilarious if it was a feature narrative, but as a documentary, it is rather staggering.
The wholesale government corruption that Br?gger captures on film is obviously widespread and pervasive. While some blame for the country?s lawlessness and desperate poverty is laid at the feet of their former colonial power, the good old French, there is truly no excuse for such dire conditions to exist in a country so richly blessed with mineral resources. Clearly, something is rotten in the failed state of CAR, and Liberia is hardly any better.
Looking like a character from a Graham Greene novel, Br?gger plays his part to the hilt. Unlike The Red Chapel, where the director was in a constant on-screen dialogue with the viewers and his co-conspirators in his attempt to punk the North Korean regime, Br?gger largely stays in character throughout Ambassador. His neck is also on the line when things get dodgy, in a very real way.
Had conventional Michael Moore-inspired doc-grinders tackled this subject, they simply would have ambushed the receptionist at Liberia?s U.N. mission and claimed a great moral victim when the low-level employee could not discuss the country?s diplomatic personnel in the CAR chapter and verse.
Br?gger puts those play-it-safers to shame. Until they start challenging the kind of people who can make their critics disappear, on their home turf, they are not worthy of carrying Br?gger?s cigarette holder.
Another have-to-see-it-to-believe-it film from the muckraking provocateur, The Ambassador is very highly and earnestly recommended. It plays in New York at the IFC Center.
The Ambassador
Director: Mads Br?gger
Cast: Mads Br?gger
Running Time: 93 minutes
4 stars
Joe Bendel writes about independent film and lives in New York. To read his most recent articles, please visit http://jbspins.blogspot.com
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter
Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/arts-entertainment/movie-review-the-ambassador-286937.html
oklahoma news nascar news doppler radar colorado rockies moonshine news channel 4 radar weather
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.