Though you may not know the name of Danish satirist / filmmaker Mads Brugger if you follow the world of international film - particularly documentary - you have almost certainly heard of his work. You see Brugger's 2009 film - The Red Chapel - shot the man to international fame when it took home the Grand Jury Prize for international documentary at Sundance. But the award did not come without a share of controversy as the film was not a documentary in the conventional sense but something of a media stunt, one in which Brugger posed as a communist theater director to get access to North Korea. Well, just wait until you see what he's done now ...
A strange, enigmatic and decadent white diplomat arrives in central Africa, looking like a mixture of Henry Stanley and Karl Lagerfeld. He has recently bought an ambassadorship and claims to be a do-good rich business man, who has come to spearhead a diplomatic mission. Officially he is there to start a factory that produces matches - this, to employ locals and teach how to make this simple piece of fire-making equipment. Unofficially he is really there to gain access to vast reserves of diamonds. The Ambassador is a genre-breaking, tragic comedy about the bizarre world of African diplomacy.
No joke: Brugger bought himself a diplomatic passport then went to live in Central Africa and see what that passport could gain him. And he captured the entire thing on film, going to some crazy extremes in the process. Says Bruger in a recent interview:
Exactly because I'm beyond role-playing by actually being a diplomat, I can forge a partnership with the very sinister owner of a diamond mine replete with gold tooth and machete scars on his forehead. That would be highly problematic for a journalist. But it's no problem for a diplomat.
The first trailer for Brugger's The Ambassador has just arrived online and it is astounding stuff. Check it out on our website.