[4.2]
The concept for the movie is shocking enough: filmmaker/journalist provocateur Mads Brügger obtains a fake Libyan diplomatic passport and travels to the Central African Republic with a plan of getting involved with the illegal diamond trade, all to show the ease in which such nefarious activities take place. The first thing I thought, when watching the opening minutes, was how the fuck did they get insurance for this film? Mads makes consistent use of hidden cameras, with no effort to conceal people’s identities. Instead, the film revels in its disclosure of names, faces, and damning evidence. The film starts with Mads meeting with a British diplomatic “fixer” living in Portugal, who confesses quite bluntly that he suspects Mads will be involved with some shady business in CAR, so the fixer will have to go through back channels to get the credentials and deal exclusively in cash, off-the-books. It’s amazing how easily and openly these seemingly invincible men discuss their illegal activities, and, perhaps more surprisingly, how easy it is to find websites online that advertise in big bold letters that they can get anyone a diplomatic passport, albeit for a hefty price (something like 300,000 Euros). No sooner does Mads have his passport than he is in the CAR, setting up meetings with other diplomats and government officials, flying in an Indian expert to help set up a match factory, and seeking out diamond mines to invest in. While Mads films many of these meetings with hidden cameras, much of the footage comes from cameras that seem to be used incredibly conspicuously (supposedly done on a 7D, which didn’t set off any red flags with the Africans because… it looked like a still camera? Really?? Uh..). Regardless, as in RED CHAPEL, Mads doesn’t always get what he wants in the footage, though he does push farther here than he did in North Korea. One fat ex-Frenchman that Mads interviews has lots of insider knowledge that he heartily shares, but we learn later that this man (head of national security) has been assassinated. Perhaps best of all, we hear from Libyan government officials who, trying to ensure Mads that he will get the final confirmation in the diplomatic process, tell him that the President herself will honor him by draping him in official robes at a huge ceremony. It’s almost hilarious (and frightening) what can be done with the slightest amount of palm-greasing. Like RED CHAPEL, Mads never manages to fully capture his Smoking Gun on video, so he has to rely on the ever-present threat of exposure, arrest, and murder to propel the story along. Even if Mads can lay his hands on the diamonds, his business partner has apparently colluded with Mads lawyer to deny him a copy of their business contract, leaving Mads with no proof of the deal. Worse, Mads could easily be stopped at the border, his diamonds seized, and thrown in jail (it has apparently happened to many other businessmen before him). And until he gets confirmation from Libya, he doesn’t have full diplomatic immunity. It’s sufficiently higher stakes than in North Korea, but I again feel slightly disappointed that Mads couldn’t make better use of the material. I imagine what Herzog could have done with this footage, what his exceptional analysis could have revealed about this situation. Instead, Mads makes the most superficial of comments. He confesses that he is indeed giving the villagers and Pygmies false hope about their future jobs in the match factory (he has no intention of opening it), but he justifies this by saying that this happens all the time, and in much more extreme ways. Okay… but this doesn’t quell the fact that Mads is a bit of an asshole, and he is able to get away with this in the name of playing a “role” that exposes the “true evil.” Yet, he did get involved with diamond dealers, he did supply them with $30,000 of real money in order to fund their blood diamond business. He did help fund the shady diplomat-selling business that he simultaneously discredits. But, who is the one spouting racist beliefs about the amoral Chinese, the treacherous French, and using stereotypical images of these on his mock matchstick advertisement: is it Mads or his alter-ego? Does it matter? When Mads makes a joke that the champagne they are drinking to celebrate the diamond deal is the same champagne Hitler drank before committing suicide, is he mocking them for our benefit, or is he helping perpetuate certain beliefs that the Africans hold about Europeans (one African finds Hitler “funny”)? These are important moral questions that need to be asked about documentaries such as this, not only regarding their moral presentation to viewers, but more importantly, their intentional manipulation of reality. Mads is, in effect, creating the story we are seeing, but using real people in set-up situations, hoping for the response that will prove his point. Is there other footage that Mads holds out from us that would prove the opposite of his view? When a documentarian doesn’t even profess to be objective, how can we really believe any of his footage or judgments? THE AMBASSADOR is a fascinating film, both for its content and for the discussion it inevitably raises regarding the morality of this style of documentary.
burning retina 