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THE AMBASSADOR
For 135,000 dollars, Mads Brügger buys an African diplomatic passport in this satirical documentary. Posing as an honorary consul from Liberia, he wants to enter the trade in blood diamonds in the Central African Republic. After several meetings with corrupt politicians, foreign legionnaires, and shadowy hoodlums, it all becomes clear: without lots of bribes, nothing gets done in this place that's overrun with heavily armed rebels and violent gangs. Brügger, who has made himself into a caricature of a 19th-century colonialist, won't end his life-threatening cinematic experiment even after one of his interviewees is murdered.
Meet the director
Mads Brügger
Danish journalist, moderator, and filmmaker Mads Brügger was born in 1972. He worked in print media and radio and was the occasional host of THE 11TH HOUR (2007), a late-night talk show. Brügger's career in film and television began in 2001 as the author of several episodes of the Danish television series KLEINROCKS KABINET. Three years later, he directed the satirical documentary series DANES FOR BUSH. His documentary film THE RED CHAPEL (2009), in which he exposed the absurdity of the totalitarian North Korean regime, received the jury's award for best foreign documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. In THE AMBASSADOR (2011), Brügger posed as a diplomat in order to investigate Africa's trade in blood diamonds and received a Robert, Denmark's most prestigious film award, for best documentary. Since 2011, he has also been the head of programming at radio station Radio24syv. His first feature film, THE SAINT BERNARD SYNDICATE (2018), was, like THE RED CHAPEL and THE AMBASSADOR in previous years, screened at FILMFEST MÜNCHEN. His latest film, COLD CASE HAMMARSKJÖLD (2019), was also honored at the Sundance Film Festival; this time, Brügger received the award for best director of a foreign documentary.