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Leith, a registered ghost town in North Dakota, is home to twenty people and a single shop. The almost entirely forgotten town suddenly becomes the most discussed settlement in America as renowned white supremacist Craig Cobb moves in to buy up land and property to rent out or give away to the country's most notorious Nazi groups. Cobb's grand plan is to become mayor of the town and create America's first legal white-only town. This startling documentary details the events of the subsequent months.

With its isolated small town backdrop and bleached, low-contrast colourisation of the stock, Welcome to Leith gives the impression of a fictional horror movie. During the winter months, you could be watching Fargo. As the feeling of threat and dread hover over the dinner table during the resident's mealtimes, it appears to come straight from a M Night Shyamalan nightmare.

Cobb's appearance is part aging thrash metal guitarist, part Peter Stringfellow with jovial smiles that betray the viciousness below the surface. Dutton is an Iraq war veteran with possibly the worst Hitler moustache in history who seems to gain more sympathy from the audience than loathing. It feels that Dutton, although harbouring abhorrent beliefs, is principally concentrating on receiving approval from Cobb, who takes on an adopted father figure role. It's Dutton's girlfriend Deborah Henderson who is the truly chilling one, with a vicious uncompromising hatred for non-whites and a predatory growl constantly smeared across her face.

What Nichols and Walker do exceptionally shrewdly is to give both corners of the ring the time to discuss their particular point of view. What this effectively does is give access to all of the players, something rarely achieved in a documentary about extremism, and this produces a wonderful insight into evil-doer's everyday life. Seconds after seeing Dutton performing aggressive sieg heils at a town meeting in the face of Leith's only black resident, Bobby Harper, we see him making banana fritters in his kitchen discussing his dreams of becoming a celebrity chef. The writers realise that given enough rope, the white supremacists will happily hang themselves anyway; the exasperated cries from the Cheyenne plains are clearly audible as Dutton argues that white births are now in the minority for the first time in American history. Cobb takes a DNA test on national television to prove his racial purity, only to find out he's fourteen percent African.

This even handedness rightfully reaps rewards towards the end of the film as they manage to obtain video footage from Deborah Henderson's smartphone. This shows Cobb and Dutton marching through the town with loaded rifles shouting racial slurs at the residents. It is at this moment, with whispered comments such as 'Make sure they shoot first', the realisation sinks in that for all the talk and arrogant discrimination, there is a true threat of lethal violence involved here.

Another attractive observation is the charming naivety the original residents have to extremism. Mayor Schock freely admits to not even knowing what a white supremacist was before meeting Cobb. It is refreshing then to observe how a community can pull together to defend one another's rights, and you get a stimulating insight into the way America works at ground level as the council try to work around the first amendment excuses Cobb obsesses on so well. When does one's right to freedom of speech become another's illegal hate- crime discrimination? The town's council at one point pass a new law requiring every living accommodation to have plumbed sewage, in one clean sweep making the majority of Cobb's rental properties, housing the white supremacists, illegal. This is a fascinating move to counteract Cobb's completely, and astonishingly, legal Nazi hate- speech and threats of gun violence.

Welcome to Leith is a terrifying yet fascinating account of a dark recess of American society and culture. It is made with clarity and observed impartiality and stands out impressively against previous documentaries of a similar ilk.

I wish that this wasn't a documentary.

The movie overall is extremely gripping and entertaining and well-put together. The content is horrible, and I wish that the events shown in it had never happened. This has little to do with my enjoyment of the film, however. The movie was well-put together and I liked seeing all the perspectives. It seemed like the filmmakers were trying to get the audience to sympathize with the nazis, but other than that I enjoyed this movie.

Welcome to Leith was well-received at its showing at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. The film documents the peculiar events that occurred in 2013-2014 when a nationally-known white supremacist Craig Cobb moves to tiny Leith, North Dakota (population: 24) with a plan to buy up land and take over city government and make it into some sort of center of white supremacy. Once alerted by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) the ordinary town folks mobilize to fight back and save their town from Cobb's nefarious plan.

The odd part of the story is that Cobb's plan seems to be legal. (When he and his partner are finally arrested they almost seem to have been provoked.) There is nothing illegal about buying land and moving into a town. And the first amendment allows him to express his beliefs and fly his Nazi flags no matter how evil and offensive those beliefs may be. The town residents actually seemed to be making excuses to get rid of him such as citing him for not having running water and a sewage system on his property.

Fundamentally, the film asks the question is democracy about the community making decisions by the will of the majority or is there a basic set of minimum beliefs about human equality that are necessary prerequisites to participate in democratic society? The majority of the town seemed to decide – really quite reasonably - that Cobb's noxious beliefs were so anti-egalitarian that they didn't want him and his cronies to live in their town. They are in some sense intolerant of his intolerant beliefs, but one can hardly blame them.

Welcome to Leith is beautifully filmed and the filmmakers maintain an impressive level of objectivity about their offensive subject. They let his evil beliefs discredit themselves rather than trying to paint Cobb as anything more than the pathetic nasty creature that he is. The townspeople come off as genuine and human. Perhaps it is a positive sign that this sort of racism is unacceptable even in one of the smallest most isolated corners of the United States. I hope that Welcome to Leith gets widely distributed so that many more people can enjoy this powerful film.

This film definitely gets the conflict: a dying town receives new arrivals who they do not want. We see a lot of bad behavior, without seeing how it came about. We hear a lot about how people feel -- but not how they got there. We see a lot of things, but we don't see the causes; we can only accept what the film shows us.

In this way, "Welcome to Leith" is very much a shaped film about real people in a real event. Sympathy clearly exists for the townspeople, but we are also given good exposure to the newcomers, who present their views openly. Unexplored is how the behavior of the good townspeople is often worse than that of the prejudiced newcomers -- or is it? We don't know, but in this film we see property destruction only by one side, and it's not the newcomers.

Making issues more complicated, the arguments given by the old-timers only tangle things further; we can imagine the same arguments happening in dying white towns receiving new non-white occupants. Sure, the answer feels obvious to all of us -- but you can't argue a feeling into a legal action ... or can you?

Perhaps the filmmakers realized all this; the title alone is ironic, since clearly the town of Leith is *not* welcoming these people. But in a free democracy, property up for sale can be bought by anyone interested. What we haven't figured out how to manage, is how to balance the rights of the existing inhabitants with those of the newcomers. "Welcome to Leith" shows this problem is still very much alive -- regardless of which side of the Sold sign you're standing on

This documentary speaks volumes and is very relevant to America in 2016-2018 with what is happening in the news.

This should be shown in every school to help fight hatred and learn how to stand up to them. Kudos to the producers for making such an important piece and getting it out there

This reminded me of Wild Wild Country where a band of renegades takes over a small town for their own nefarious purposes. Both end almost the same way. But Leith was only 2hrs vs WWC at 6 or 7.

It is a sad state when we can't or won't remember and learn from our own history. This movie does a pretty good job showcasing white supremists and their tactics and the struggle a little known town had to endure because these nuts were trying to prove something.

Well told and fast paced. Would totally recommend.

The people that made "Welcome to Leith" did a nice job of presenting a reasonably well balanced and interesting story. While they obviously didn't like the white supremacists featured in the film, they also were sure to present the complete story...warts and all.

The town of Leith is extremely tiny and located in the Dakotas. When a crazed white supremacist arrives there and starts buying up property, folks start getting concerned. When he then starts inviting in other like-minded jerks, the town starts to react...strongly. What follows is a film that consists of showing the tiny town's efforts to get rid of the supremacists and prevent them from taking over Leith. Unfortunately, when the neo-Nazis actually do something that might be illegal, some of the townsfolks manage to undo the state's case by talking out of turn...and some of these people later blame the state for the case falling apart. However, the way I saw the film I don't believe the authorities LEGALLY had much more they could do about the supremacists...and the film leaves everything in limbo. This could REALLY benefit from a follow-up to know what subsequently occurred.

As I mentioned, the people who made the film were great--they were very thorough and did a wonderful job in presenting both sides. It's not 100% satisfying to watch, however, for two reasons. First, in real life things often DON'T work out perfectly...as the film illustrates. And, Second, despite 99.9% of the viewers wanting to see these neo-Nazis die or go to prison forever, legally this wasn't possible due to Constitutionally guaranteed rights...even the right to be an evil, nasty, hateful individual! To me this isn't a bad thing...everyone deserves protection--whether or not they are nice people...though I am sure many will be angered by this. Despite its shortcomings, it does make for an interesting documentary as well as a great civics lesson.

As much as I hate white supremacists as well as any other intolerant movement this was interesting to watch as this documentary is very well made. There is footage from both sides of the town habitants. So I really can't agree with other reviewers claiming the white supremacist didn't get his say. Instead I thought he got plenty of air time to explain his case but the only thing you can witness is his faul and disgusting vision of life. In fact everything he says and does sums their narrow vision very well, they are all a bunch of intolerant retards that belong in jail or in a grave. The world would be better off without this kind of parasites that blaim everything that goes wrong in their pathetic life to Jewish or people of African origin. Craig Cobb, with his self declared high IQ, is in fact dumber than a box of rocks. His mate, sorry I forgot the retards name, is the exact specimen you can expect with these kind of people, low and uneducated white thrash with the only hability to reproduce alot and so to continue the lineage of dumbasses. The irony is that he sees himself as an Aryen, one of the pure white race. It's just too funny for words, for that you have to watch this documentary yourself so that you can witness what their Aryens are supposed to look like. Respect to all the people that opposed themselves to those scums of the earth. The documentary also shows how ridicule the first amendment is. Americans should be deeply ashamed to tolerate hate groups in their country. If you preach hate, violence and even extermination of another race you belong in jail, that's it. No first amendment should protecting that kind of behavior. Shame on you America.

This is the documentary about the inhabitants of Leith, a small village/town in North Dakota. After finding out that Craig Cobb, a well known and infamous neo nazi are buying as much land as he possibly can in order to create some sort of village for his like minded, mentally challenged people aka other neo nazis. Basically, Cobb is trying to take over Leith.

It starts off pretty calmly, but after a while Cobb and his minions start to walk "patrols" in this small community while being armed with assault rifles and things escalate quicky. The movie is not only a testament to how hard the residents of Leith fought to get rid of a potentially dangerous group of individuals but it also gives a glimpse inside the narrow mind of Cobb and his followers. Why they would let themselves be portrayed like this for the world to see is beyond me, but in my experience alt-righters and neo nazis aren't very intelligent to begin with. If you haven't watched this, i recommend it strongly.

The negative reviews comes from deplorables who's afraid and/or ashamed of the truth. This movie is extremely well made, it's unbiased and we get to see both sides of the situation.

Excellent film, thoroughly enjoyed it. The stories including the neo nazis and people resisting was so fascinating!

This film was incredible. It captures the small community putting up with this horrible neo-Nazi and seeing him plot to take over leadership revealed how sneaky and concerned we should all be in these fascist times. Excellent film.

Unfortunately, it is a documentary.

This film allows us to witness how a single white supremacist, backed by an impressively strong community of like mnded people, tried to take over a small American town and subvert democracy to meet his needs.

The crew has been able to follow both sides of the battle. The supremacists, and the residents of Leith, allowing the viewer to form his own opinion.

The cinematography is astounding, reminiscent of David Lynch (who tried his hand at documentaries with the nineties series « American Chronicles »). A visceral sense of dread, paradoxically achieved with beautiful cut scenes and a great score, hence accompanies us all the way through the film.

This is an mandatory watch. Especially nowadays. We can't afford to divert our eyes. Welcome to Leith is an essential reminder of what could happen, even in a democratic country, and how fast it could happen.

"Welcome to Leith" is an astonishing portrait of a tiny peaceful American village (only 24 inhabitants) which gets taken over by a bunch of neonazis, who decided to become permanent residents there. The neonazis even take over the town hall meeting and they buy several plots of housing property.

This documentary is a stunning tale of what happens when neonazis suddenly become your neighbour and start walking around your former peaceful village with loaded guns wearing nazi symbols.

As a viewer we get a deeper insight into both the personal lives of these neonazis and their original peaceful neighbours. Will they be able to live together or will there be a violent conflict?

What I liked about this documentary was the balanced view. The neonazis dont get demonized right away by the director, he gives the neonazis ample time to tell their side of the story, although their words and actions on camera speak volumes about their anger and hatred.

I usually never like to watch documentaries about these kind of groups but this one is quite insightful. Recommended viewing. (No visual examples of violence to be seen in this documentary).

Can't stand shaky camera films. Skipped around a bit, still skaky, fast pans, hard to watch, turned off.