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The 55 projects selected for the pitching forum have been revealed.

Documentary projects about corruption in football, black representation in the arts and the explosion in Beirut are among those selected for Sheffield Doc/Fest’s 2021 pitching forum MeetMarket.

The UK documentary market will take place virtually, as it did last year as a result of the pandemic, and will run from June 9-11. The public-facing festival will include physical screenings but the market has gone online-only due to travel restrictions for the mainly international delegates.

A total of 55 projects were selected from more than 570 applications and includes productions from 31 countries,...

In 1961, a plane crashed in Ndola, Rhodesia. One of the passengers who perished in the accident was Dag Hammarskjöld, the Secretary-General of the United Nations. He’d been negotiating a cease-fire between troops in the Republic of Katanga and U.N. forces. Hammarskjöld was 56 years old. These are facts.

Mads Brügger knows the facts of this case, of course. But he’s also interested in sifting through the official record to find what you might call the truth behind the truth. A Danish filmmaker with a love of immersive, gonzo-investigative...

Conspiracy theories are understandably tempting. They attempt to provide a narrative to our world, often to the horrors we cannot easily explain. But what’s the difference between a conspiracy theory and a mystery? Does the truth dwell in conspiracy until there’s enough evidence to support it? And how much evidence is needed to push a story from fiction to fact? Like in his 2011 documentary The Ambassador, writer/director Mads Brügger is fascinated by the concept of truth, particularly with how it relates to social issues. While his new movie, Cold Case Hammarskjöld, begins as a …...

Lionsgate Television has acquired the U.S. remake rights to “Veni Vidi Vici,” the hit Swedish comedy series about a struggling film director who decides to take a job in the adult entertainment industry and starts to live a double life

The 10-part show was created for Nordic Entertainment Group’s Viaplay streaming service and has been picked up in key territories, including in the U.S. by Hulu and in Australia by Sbs. Co-writer, director and star Rafael Edholm is on board to help develop the U.S. adaptation.

The remake is also being developed by Fredrik Lundberg for HandsUp Sthlm, together with Kim Magnusson (“I Kill Giants”) and Madwood Studios’ Michael Flutie (“Westside”), for both the U.S. and international markets.

Nordic Entertainment (Nent) Group has a longstanding relationship with Lionsgate Television, as the U.S. company is handling the worldwide sales of Nent Group’s original productions “Swedish Dicks,...

Fond also backs two TV serires and Lisa Langseth’s new feature.

In its June round of funding, Nordisk Film & TV Fond supported seven new projects, including its largest ever production grant for a documentary, $118,000 (Nok 1m), to Mads Brügger’s [pictured] Cold Case Dag Hammerskjöld.

The Danish documentary is produced by Peter Engel of Wingman Media, in co-production with Norway’s Piraya Film, Sweden’s Laika Film and Belgium’s Associate Producers. Again with his unique style also on camera The Ambassador director Brugger reopens the case of legendary former Un Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld who died in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia in 1961.

Dr handles world sales on the film, which will be delivered in 2017.

The Fond also supported these projects in its latest round:

A Modern Man (documentary) $56,000 $231,000 (Nok 500,000) Produced by Danish Documentary and directed by Eva Mulvad, this film is an existential journey with violinist and model Charlie Siem. Rides Upon the...

Celluloid Dreams handles Valley of Shadows; Media Luna boards Little Wing; Indie Sales represents The Giant.

The old adage of ‘leaving them wanting more’ was certainly on display at the Works In Progress pitches at Goteborg’s Nordic Film Market this year (full line-up below).

The most-anticipated pitch of the session was Johannes Nyholm’s feature debut The Giant. The director showed several scenes from the film, but refrained from showing footage of the fantastical Giant as he said the VFX was still being worked on.

Also holding back were the producers of Cold Case Hammarskjold, the latest provocative documentary from Mads Brugger (of The Ambassador and The Red Chapel fame), about the death of Swedish diplomat and author Dag Hammarskjold.

Co-producer Andreas Rocksen said the filmmakers had a new theory about how Hammarskjold’s plane went down in 1961, but he said the theory won’t be revealed until the film is ready.

Several of the...

Nordic Film Market includes debut films by Force Majeure actress, the screenwriter of A Royal Affair and director of viral hit Las Palmas; CAA, UTA and ICM agents among attending industry.Scroll down for full list

More than 40 Nordic films and works in progress will be presented at the fruitful Nordic Film Market in Goteborg, which runs Feb 4-7 during to the Goteborg Film Festival (Jan 29 - Feb 8).

Often a productive staging post for impressive upcoming regional features and emerging talent, the 2016 lineup includes 17 finished features and 20 works in progress, plus eight titles presented as part of the Nordic Film Lab Discovery programme.

The works-in-progress presentations (see full list below) include ten debut films from the likes of A Royal Affair screenwriter Rasmus Heisterberg, viral hit Las Palmas director Johannes Nyholm, Force Majeure actress Fanni Metelius and Cannes Cinefondation alumni Juho Kuosmanen and Shahrbanoo Sadat.

Other works in progress will be presented from directors Mads Brugger ([link...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Pretend to be a diamond smuggling businessman posing as a Liberian ambassador to the Central African Republic (Car) – that’s the Mo for Danish filmmaker Mads Brugger. Live a life of double-subterfuge for an unknown period of time in the most war-happy continent on Earth, in a country rife with corruption and political murder. Put a few laughs in it.

This is revealing documentary The Ambassador, featuring a nihilistic performance from Mads Brugger – here both filmmaker and actor – playing a man for whom “great things can happen when you mix business with politics.” Through hidden-camera footage of high-ranking African officials, we see what happens when man’s humanity gets replaced with a void, in a place where anything goes. What unfolds over 93 minutes is a funny and frightening glance at the edge of the world.

The comedy of The Ambassador sometimes sits uncomfortably alongside the more worrying developments in the film.

Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger's - director of the controversial Central African Republic-set documentary expose on political corruption and exploitation (The Ambassador), is reportedly going to continue his darkly comic, genre-bending journalistic ways with another documentary also set in continental Africa, which Screen Daily says will be just as explosive as the former. Titled Operation Celeste, the film alleges that... ... the Un Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, who died with his entourage in a plane crash in Zambia in 1961, was, in fact, assassinated by “a nexus of big powers working in collusion”. From my research of reports...

"This conversation we’re about to have never happened."

As seen in in the documentary The Ambassador, Mads Brügger, under the name Mads Cortzen, went about obtaining himself credentials as a diplomat to the Central African Republic (Car). With these credentials, one can travel freely without interference from local officials. This is used, Brügger asserts, to allow for shady deals to make these so-called diplomats rich. He eventually engages Diplomatic Services, a credential brokerage company, for $135,000 (which also provided him with an honorary degree from Monrovia University and a Liberian driver’s license). He also looked into a British broker of diplomatic credentials (who has an exclusive plan for “extremely high likelihood of success”) but they could not find a country that would want a consulate in the Car. So, Brügger goes to Monrovia, Liberia with a plan in motion (by Diplomatic Services) to bribe the appropriate individuals to get...

Director Mads Brugger discusses his new documentary The Ambassador, currently available on Blu-ray and DVD

Mads Br&#252gger first made his mark on the world of cinema with his documentary The Red Chapel, which took home a Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The Danish director employs a style he calls "performative journalism," which, to me, seems like an amazing cocktail of Fletch, Hunter S. Thompson, and Borat all rolled into one. This provocateur is back with his latest film The Ambassador, where he heads to the Central African Republic, under the guise of a foreign diplomat from Liberia. The filmmaker takes us inside a country that is just as dangerous as it is mysterious, to expose the "blood diamond" trade and government corruption with a style that is incredibly informative and entertaining. I recently had the chance to speak with the director about his new film, which...

The Movie -

Watch any number of political thrillers or espionage films and you’ve undoubtedly seen more than a few ambassadors portrayed on screen, but when it comes to real life, how much do we really know about these appointed figures who seem to be untouchable? I can imagine at some point, this very same thought went through the head of Danish journalist Mads Brugger. Whatever his motivation, the journalist turned filmmaker turned his investigative eyes and ears toward the connection between ambassadorship to the Central African Republic (Car) and the lucrative smuggling of blood diamonds out of the country.

The term “blood diamonds” refers to diamonds that have been illegally exported from war-torn countries without authorization. If you’ve seen Edward Zwick’s 2006 film Blood Diamond, then you may have a sensationalized idea of what goes on in this region of Africa. What Brugger does is to take...

With The Ambassador, Mads Brügger literally risks his life during an earnest attempt to purchase a Liberian ambassadorship to the Central African Republic under the moniker "Mads Cortzen." Why? Well, if we believe his cover story, Brügger hopes to build a match factory to be staffed by at least one pygmy (you know, to give his business venture some local credibility). Brügger’s true goal, however, is to smuggle diamonds out of Africa in his diplomatic luggage. If anyone realizes what Brügger is really doing — studiously documenting this entire venture via hidden cameras — he will almost certainly be killed instantly. We sat down with the provocateur extraordinaire, Brügger, inside the safe confines of the Alamo's Highball to discuss his journalistic integrity and uncompromising approach to non-fiction filmmaking.

People make documentaries for all kinds of reasons. To shed light on an unknown topic or tell an untold side of a story. Or perhaps they're making a love letter to something, or even a takedown piece. If you were going off of The Ambassador alone, it would seem that director Mads Brügger makes documentaries because he wants to get himself killed. This is his Grizzly Man, only Brügger is both Werner Herzog and Timothy Treadwell, and instead of living amongst bears, it's rebel soldiers. The Ambassador is a film that finds Brügger posing as an over-the-top, rich European man who wants to buy his way to diplomatic status in the Central African Republic. In doing so he peels back layer after layer of systemic corruption, outing government...

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The Ambassador is a documentary film that will dumbfound you, fill you with an overpowering sense of incredulity, and uncomfortably take you far away from your daily ordered existence. Danish documentary filmmaker Mads Brügger, much as with his last film The Red Chapel, goes undercover to infiltrate an unwelcoming and nearly unbelievable foreign country. Last time around it was Kim Jong-il's North Korea, this time it's the chaotic Central African Republic, a landlocked former French colony that is rich in natural resources but poverty-ridden. It's a place that Brügger describes thusly: "If Congo was the heart of darkness, this is the appendix." This is a place where the adventurous rich and powerful come to game a willing system that bestows wealth on the greedy off the backs of the poor.

This holiday weekend brings eight new releases to Austin theaters, from the erudite and hilarious comedy Sleepwalk with Me to the slightly less erudite and probably not very hilarious horror flick The Possession.

If the new offerings don't grab you (but really, Sleepwalk with Me should grab everyone), the Paramount continues its Summer Classic Film Series with a weekend of modern classics, including E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Dirty Dancing, Pretty in Pink and one of my favorite Eighties films, The Breakfast Club (pictured above). See the Paramount and Stateside calendar for details.

Fans of short films won't want to miss the Texas Filmmakers Showcase on Thursday at the Austin Film Society screening room. Curated by the Houston Film Commission, the 95-minute showcase features seven Texas short films, including works from Austin's own Timothy Edwards, Micah Robert Barber and Carlyn Hudson. This event is a fundraiser for the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund,...

Drafthouse Films has released four clips from The Ambassador, the latest documentary from heralded director Mads Br&#252gger (The Red Chapel). The filmmaker stars as himself, disguised as a foreign businessman in the Central African Republic, considered one of the most dangerous places in the world, to expose the country's corrupt business practices. Watch as this provacateur puts his "performative journalism" style of filmmaking on display.

The Ambassador - Paperwork in Order

The Ambassador - The Fall of Birao

The Ambassador - Fish Eggs

The Ambassador - The Central African Republic

The Ambassador was released August 29th, 2012. The film is directed by Mads Brügger.

With Mads Brugger's The Ambassador opening in limited release on Us screens today - it is already widely available on VOD - Drafthouse Films have released a quartet of clips from the picture.This darkly comic, genre-bending documentary that exposes the corrupt business of selling diplomatic titles to exploit the lucrative and limited resources of war torn, third world nations. Filmmaker/journalist/provocateur Mads Brügger (Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner for The Red Chapel) uses humor in his jaw-dropping descent into one of the most dangerous places on the planet: Central African Republic. From each absurdly terrifying and hilarious situation to the next, The Ambassadoris a one-of-a-kind excursion from the man whom The Huffington Posthas called "the most provocative filmmaker in the world."  Financed by filmmaker Lars...

We here at Collider are happy to debut a new clip from the documentary The Ambassador. The darkly comic doc blurs the line between straight documentary and "mockumentary", as director Mads Brügger has developed a new style of documentary filmmaking that he calls performative journalism. The film exposes the corrupt business of selling diplomatic titles to exploit the lucrative and limited resources of war torn, third world nations, but it does so by creating a caricature of a corrupt diplomat and throwing him into real situations with hidden cameras. This clip provides a glimpse at how Brügger pulls this off as we see a “diplomat” stumble through a speech at a public event in the Central African Republic. Hit the jump to watch the clip. The Ambassador is currently available VOD and is playing in select theaters. Here’s the synopsis for The Ambassador: This darkly comic, genre-bending documentary...

Documentaries take us places. Some take us to places where creativity thrives, others take us to the halls of science, and some take us to unpleasant places, places we do not want to admit exist. The film The Ambassador, opening in Austin today, takes us to this latter place, a world where corruption and hypocrisy are woven into the fabric of everyday society.  

The Ambassador takes us to the Central African Republic, a country bordered by Chad, Sudan and the Congo. A former French colony, the Central African Republic is rich in natural resources (diamonds, gold, oil), contrasted with one of the poorest populations in all of Africa. The Central African Republic is a place where the powerful make fortunes on the backs of the poor and unfortunate.

The documentary shines a light on the easily corrupted power structure of this impoverished nation. The creation of Danish journalist Mads Brügger,...

Watch 4 new clips from Drafthouse Films' darkly comic, genre-bending The Ambassador documentary. Mads Brügger directs the film which can be seen in theaters now, and is produced by Peter Aalbæk Jensen, Peter Garde, Peter Engel and Carsten Holst. The film exposes the corrupt business of selling diplomatic titles to exploit the lucrative and limited resources of war torn, third world nations. Filmmaker/journalist/provocateur Brügger who won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for The Red Chapel, uses humor in his jaw-dropping descent into one of the most dangerous places on the planet: Central African Republic. From each absurdly terrifying and hilarious situation to the next, The Ambassador is a one-of-a-kind excursion.

Watch 4 new clips from Drafthouse Films' darkly comic, genre-bending The Ambassador documentary. Mads Brügger directs the film which can be seen in theaters now, and is produced by Peter Aalbæk Jensen, Peter Garde, Peter Engel and Carsten Holst. The film exposes the corrupt business of selling diplomatic titles to exploit the lucrative and limited resources of war torn, third world nations. Filmmaker/journalist/provocateur Brügger who won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for The Red Chapel, uses humor in his jaw-dropping descent into one of the most dangerous places on the planet: Central African Republic. From each absurdly terrifying and hilarious situation to the next, The Ambassador is a one-of-a-kind excursion.

Out This Week is a weekly column intended to provide reviews of nearly every new indie release. Reviews are written by Indiewire critic Eric Kohn and other contributors where noted. Reviews This Week "The Ambassador" "Breathing" "For a Good Time Call..." "The Good Doctor" "Little Birds" "Ornette: Made in America" "The Possession" "The Ambassador" Danish comedian-turned-filmmaker Mads Brügger follows up his North Korean antics in "The Red Chapel" with an even greater envelope-pushing farce. His chameleonesque approach finds him gaining access to faux diplomatic credentials and assuming the role of a Liberian consul in the Central African Republic while engaging in backroom deals with various shifty power players eager to aid and profit from his agenda. A bald, neatly bearded European donning sunglasses and a deadpan expression,...

You can always count on Danish journalist-filmmaker Mads Brügger to stir the pot. In the award-winning documentary that put him on the map, "The Red Chapel," Brügger headed to North Korea with two Danish-Korean comedians under the guise of a cultural exchange to show what life is really like for the country's citizens. With his follow-up "The Ambassador," which played at Sundance in January, he makes his way to the Central African Republic (Car) posing as a Liberian consul to show what happens when a very white European man buys his way into being a diplomat in one of Central Africa's most failed nations. The film is currently playing in select theaters and is available on VOD. Below, Brügger shares one of his favorite scenes from the documentary, in which he meets with a member of parliament related to the president of the Car. The Scene: Behind the Scene: While in Bangui,...

Two years ago, Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger received heaps of praise and a certain level of notoriety for his North Korea documentary, The Red Chapel, a surreally funny glimpse at the repressive routinization of daily life inside the hermit kingdom that won the Grand Jury Prize for international documentary at Sundance. To some, the controversial film was merely a highwire stunt: Brügger managed to gain entrance to the totalitarian state (along with two gagmen, one a self-described “spastic”) by posing as a communist theater director attempting to mount a comedy in the interest of cultural exchange. The disadvantages of his unique position on the inside grow from slight irritation at being continually shadowed by his nosy minder, Mrs. Pak, to near total abasement at an anti-American rally. Brügger, a well-known journalist and radio personality in Denmark, certainly has a knack for satirical role-playing. In 2004, during the U.S. presidential campaign,...

Called the most provocative filmmaker in the world by many, Danish documentarian Mads Brügger has outdone himself with his newest work, The Ambassador. Traversing the corrupt politics of Africa, the journalist finds himself becoming a ‘colonial dandy’ to discover just how easy it is to acquire blood diamonds and befriend the highest of government officials.

Speaking with us as part of his press tour through Drafthouse Films, Mads helps explain the dire situation in the landlocked Central African Republic as well as his process transforming into a bona fide diplomat. Whether you think him provocative or not, you can’t deny he isn’t the most dedicated.

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The Film Stage: To start off I wanted to see why you decided to choose Africa as your film’s subject. It obviously affords you the opportunity to infiltrate the system that you’re exposing, but was there a personal stake in this...

(The Ambassador had its world premiere at Idfa 2011 and its U.S. premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. It was picked up for distribution by Drafthouse Films. It launched on VOD and digital platforms on August 4, 2012, and opens theatrically at the IFC Center in New York City on August 29, 2012, and at The Cinefamily in Los Angeles and Alamo Drafthouse locations in Austin on August 31, 2012.)

For the Fox News crowd, the Central African Republic could be seen as the future they’ve been waiting for: a skeleton government that rules hand in hand with ruthless, unregulated business interests over a scarred and scared population tamed with free wine and/or summary executions when they get out of hand. In The Ambassador, Mads Brügger ups the ante on the Sacha Baron Cohen gag of creating a caricatured persona for himself and traveling to a genuinely scary place (the Car is arguably even...

Mads Brügger's "The Ambassador," out today in New York City, is a demonic documentary with angelic ambitions. A professional provocateur from Denmark whose last film exposed the inner workings of North Korea, Brügger purchased a Liberian ambassadorship on the black market (under the name Mads Cortzen), joined forces with a blood-diamond mining kingpin in war-torn Central African Republic and set about proving how horrifically easy it is to smuggle gems out of crippled countries and, in the process, rob the local populace blind. Using some hidden cameras but relying mostly on an in-plain-sight Canon 7D, he surreptitiously filmed his interactions with the many scoundrels eager to fleece him -- from shady brokers of diplomatic credentials to the "assistant" who counsels him to make a disastrous business deal. And he indulged in some exploitation of his own, hiring a village of Pygmies to staff up a matchstick factory that, to their eventual disappointment,...

Here's a new clip from a film we've been following, but I haven't had a chance to see yet (I finally will this week), titled The Ambassador - provocative Danish director Mads Brügger's said to be darkly comic, genre-bending piece of journalism, in which he rips the corroded lid off the global scheme of political corruption and exploitation happening in "one of the most dangerous places on the planet," the Central African Republic. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s Drafthouse Films acquired USA rights to The Ambassador, with plans to release the film at the IFC Center in NYC on August 29, as then at The...

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.  The Ambassador opens today in limited release and VOD.] Documentaries are not objective. They are always presenting a truth in a certain light and in a way we're being conned into viewing the world under the guise of objectivity. "It's out of my control!" says the documentary filmmaker. "Even I don't know what will happen next!" Mads Brügger's gonzo documentary The Ambassador is a film where everyone is conning everyone and the audience may be the biggest mark. Brügger puts himself into the position of a criminal in order to expose criminal activity, but we're left to wonder how much he's staged. For some documentaries, that may be unimportant and simply a narrative device to prove a larger point. But for The Ambassador, the film turns on whether or not we're being played. If we aren't, then the movie is a stunning expose on a vast web of corruption. But if we are being conned, then the film...

(With Drafthouse Films releasing The Ambassador in New York today and in other selected U.S. cities on Friday, we revisit our review from HotDocs.) Either Mads Brügger has balls the size of grapefruits or there is mondo chicanery going on in The Ambassador. Well, it's a given that there is trickery happening, so the thing to figure out is who the trick is on: The Central African Republic (a former French colony smack-dab in the middle of the continent), shady European dealers of grey-market diplomatic credentials, helpful local guide-advisers, or us the viewers. The result is a thoroughly captivating, often hilarious bit of guerrilla filmmaking that is subversive both to its subject matter, and its medium of choice. Lets start at the beginning. Mads...

Title: The Ambassador Director: Mads Brügger Starring: Mads Brügger A wild, darkly comic slice of nonfiction branded “performative journalism” by its creator, “The Ambassador” sets out to expose the corrupt business of selling diplomatic titles to exploit the lucrative natural resources of war-torn third world countries. In the vein of “The Yes Men” or the work of Sacha Baron Cohen, Danish journalist and provocateur Mads Brügger contracts a cultural ambassadorship through a private European broker, then heads to the notoriously corrupt and dangerous Central African Republic to wheel and deal with government officials and black market diamond peddlers. The results are shocking and unnerving all rolled together. If the Congo is the [ Read More ]...

Did you ever wonder what a guy like Sacha Baron Cohen could accomplish if his satirical bent towards political upheaval had more than cheap laughs as its goal? What if Borat became a literal representative of Kazakhstan or Brüno a luminary in the fashion world interviewed for expert insight as a real person and not just a fictitious persona tossed aside when public saturation reaches uncontrollable heights? He would need to be a committed journalist with the stomach to both play the system and also look the other way when nefarious deeds are done. To infiltrate a foreign world so deeply to expose its corruption this person must be willing to go all the way and suffer the consequences if everything were to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Well, while we chuckle at the British chameleon playing on the naivety of the masses, there is a Dane willing to put his name,...

At the beginning of "The Red Chapel," the 2010 exposé of North Korean society directed by Danish comedian Mads Brügger, the filmmaker establishes his ruse from the outset, swiftly enunciating his intention to satirize the country's oppressive extremes by pretending to embrace them. His follow-up, "The Ambassador," uses a similar routine to display the corrupt industry of blood diamond smuggling in the heart of Africa. However, Brügger takes one audacious step further by making no overt declaration of his real motivations. Viewers are trapped in the illusion along with Brügger's targets. Brügger's chameleonesque approach finds him gaining access to faux diplomatic credentials and assuming the role of a Liberian consul in the Central African Republic -- "a lawless territory the size of Texas," as Brügger puts it in his ongoing voiceover -- while engaging in backroom deals with various shifty power players...

How about a little poster round-up to celebrate Friday? Today we’ve got a new one-sheet for Ang Lee‘s Life of Pi, which puts the main tiger at the forefront in a warm-tinted design. It also adds the new tagline, “Believe the Unbelievable.” Set to premiere at the New York Film Festival, this journey of a boy and his tiger stars newcomer Suraj Sharma as well as Gérard Depardieu, Irrfan Khan and Tabu.

We’ve also got two alternate posters, first up one for Robert Lorenz‘s baseball drama Trouble With the Curve. The last poster featured just Clint Eastwood, looking onward to the baseball field from the sideline, but now his supporting actors are added in the story of a baseball scout (Eastwood) tasked with looking at a hot young prospect. His daughter (Amy Adams) comes along for the trip, but it’s only when she meets a...

We're suckers for inventive documentaries that take risks and challenge the audience, which is why we're more than happy to exclusively premiere the poster for one of this year's must-see docs, The Ambassador. It's no surprise that Drafthouse Films picked this up because it fits perfectly into their nutty little wheelhouse in that it follows gonzo filmmaker Mads Brügger into the dangerous Central African Republic on a mission to expose corruption and profiteering. Sounds like your standard doc, except here's the twist: Brügger goes in posing as a wealthy European-African consul, injecting his false persona right into the middle of the brutal (and often deadly) world of blood-diamond smuggling, amidst some of the baddest mofos you'll ever not...

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ComingSoon.net has your exclusive first look at a clip from The Ambassador , opening on Wednesday, August 29. This darkly comic, genre-bending piece of journalism from international provocateur Mads Brügger rips the corroded lid off the global scheme of political corruption and exploitation happening in one of the most dangerous places on the planet: the Central African Republic. Armed with a phalanx of hidden cameras, black-marked diplomatic credentials and a bleeding-edge wit, Bruegger transforms himself into an outlandish caricature of a European-African Consul. As he immerses himself in the life-threatening underworld of nefarious bureaucrats, Bruegger encounters blood diamond smuggling, bribery, and even murder--while somehow managing to crack amazing razor-sharp barbs at...

By now you're surely already familiar with Mondo, the company behind some of the most innovative and beautiful poster designs around, for both classic films and new releases. Their newest partner comes from their partnership with Drafthouse Films, which will be releasing The Ambassador in New York on August 29 and Los Angeles on August 31, with a national roll-out to follow. The Ambassador is a Danish import from famously provocative filmmaker Mads Brugger, but before we tell you what it's all about, check out the brand-new poster, which will go on sale tomorrow, August 23 (follow Mondo on Twitter for the exact sales time). Here's the plot synopsis for The Ambassador, followed by the information about this poster. A darkly comic, genre-bending piece of gonzo journalism. International provocateur, director and journalist Mads Brügger (filmmaker of Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Red Chapel) rips the corroded lid off the global scheme of ...

A film we've been following here on S&A as it travels the film festival circuit, but I haven't had a chance to see yet (I finally will next week Tuesday), titled The Ambassador - provocative Danish director Mads Brügger's said to be darkly comic, genre-bending piece of journalism, in which he rips the corroded lid off the global scheme of political corruption and exploitation happening in "one of the most dangerous places on the planet," the Central African Republic. Armed with hidden cameras and illegally obtained diplomatic credentials, Bruegger transforms himself into an outlandish caricature of a European-African Consul. As he...

As Drafthouse films prepares to distribute The Ambassador to North American audiences, Mads  Brügger's documentary has been a hit on the festival circuit and has it's share of controversy on the way.  The Ambassador is act of guerrilla journalism that makes Sasha Baron Cohen and Michael Moore look like filmmakers afraid to take risks. (This sort of extreme filmmaking is, naturally, funded by Lars Von Trier's production house, Zentropa.)   Brügger pays a lot of money to shady international business men types for grey-market diplomatic credentials so he can export blood diamonds out of the Central African Republic.  He captures a lot of folks on camera (either hidden micro-cameras, his cellular phone, or his Canon 5D) that would prefer to remain anonymous and not every character in the film is...

With the summer season winding to a close, August brings a few blockbuster offerings, but mostly a healthy dose of promising limited releases, many which we’ve seen on the festival circuit. The Venice Film Festival also kicks off at the end of month, signaling the beginning of a strong fall line-up. So, without further adieu, let’s check out the summer’s best final offerings below.

Matinees: Celeste and Jesse Forever (8/3), Hope Springs (8/8), Red Hook Summer (8/10), The Campaign (8/10), Goats (8/10), The Green Wave (8/10), Side by Side (8/17) The Good Doctor (8/31), For a Good Time, Call… (8/31).

10. The Ambassador (Mads Brügger; Aug. 29th)

Synopsis: A European man heads to Africa for diplomatic purposes.

Trailer

Why You Should See It: What happens when you take Borat to the next level? Mads Brügger asks this question in his Lars von Trier-produced documentary, which sees the director/actor play a European businessman who actually gets...

I've yet to see this yet, but reviews I've read since its Sundance Film Festival debut earlier this year, have been decidedly mixed. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s Drafthouse Films acquired USA rights to The Ambassador, with plans to release the film on VOD and digital platforms on August 4, to be followed by a theatrical release at the IFC Center in NYC on August 29, as then at The Cinefamily in L.A. and Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, on August 31. Based on reviews I've read of it, it'll likely offend some, while others feel it informs and educates, and others feel both. I'm not familiar with director Mads Brügger's past work, so I...

Drafthouse Films has released the second poster for The Ambassador, director Mads Br&#252gger's documentary that was acquired by the studio earlier this month. The filmmaker puts his innovative "performative journalism" style on display, where he disguises himself as a corrupt diplomat in on of the most dangerous places on Earth, the Central African Republic. Take a look at this new 1-sheet featuring the filmmaker in character.

Financed by filmmaker Lars Von Trier's production company Zentropa (Melancholia, Klown) to expose the violence, greed and corruption of foreign businessman in the Central African Republic, Br&#252gger developed a new documentary style that he calls "performative journalism," in which he creates an absurd caricature of a corrupt diplomat and arms himself with a phalanx of hidden cameras, black-market credentials and razor-sharp wit. It's part performance art, part investigative journalism, producing humor, shocking revelations and above all a tragic picture of a failed and corrupt state.

Either Mads Brügger has balls the size of grapefruits or there is mondo chicanery going on in The Ambassador.  Well, it's a given that there is trickery happening, so the thing to figure out is who the trick is on: The Central African Republic (a former French colony smack-dab in the middle of the contient), shady European dealers of grey-market diplomatic credentials, helpful local guide-advisers or us the viewers.  The result is a thoroughly captivating, often hilarious bit of guerrilla filmmaking that is subversive both to its subject matter, and its medium of choice.  Lets start at the beginning.  Mads Brügger Cortzen is a Danish media personality that is kind of an amalgamation of Michael Moore and the Borat side of Sasha-Baron Cohen.  His previous TV documentary/comedies, Danes for Bush and Red Chapel explored...

Check out the first trailer for Mads Brügger's outrageous "The Ambassador," a ballsy documentary stunt in which the fearless director travels to the Central African Republic and disguises himself as an over-the-top caricature of a European-African consul. He often filmed himself in dangerous settings with a hidden small Canon digital Dslr camera. "It was like being in a bad Guy Ritchie movie," he said at Sundance. "I was giving money to Pygmies for a match factory...In many ways it is a film about smoking." Danish provocateur filmmaker Brügger is known for his Sundance-prize-winning 2009 doc "Red Chapel," in which he and Danish-Korean comics travel to North Korea on the pretense of a theatre troupe cultural exchange. In 2007, Brugger found a diplomatic title brokerage on the internet, he said. "If it was true, it was an amazing starting point for a documentary...I could get more access to a world seldom seen in.

You can always count on Danish journalist/filmmaker Mads Brügger to stir the pot. In the award-winning documentary that put him on the map, "The Red Chapel," Brügger headed to North Korea with two Danish-Korean comedians under the guise of a cultural exchange to show what life is really like for the country's citizens. With his follow-up "The Ambassador," which played at the Sundance Film Festival in January, he makes his way to the Central African Republic posing as a Liberian consul to show what happens when a very white European man buys his way into being a diplomat in one of Central Africa's most failed nations. Below, watch the just-released trailer and check out the official poster for the Drafthouse Films release. "The Ambassador" opens in New York on August 29 and expands to select cities on August 31. (Go Here for our interview with the filmmmaker.)...

Director Mads Brügger told us late last year – soon after his film was accepted into Sundance – that The Ambassador was “Not a mockumentary,” rather entirely truthful, aside from a lead performance from himself. One might picture a Borat-esque dark comedy (we even assumed as much when the first trailer hit), but with the film having premiered, it has been revealed to be a much more bold venture.

The Lars von Trier-produced documentary sees Brügger as a European businessman who actually gets entangled in dangerous Central African Republic commerce and politics, and forms a genre of ”performative journalism.” Drafthouse Films – who is set to release Zentropa’s other dark comedy, the hilarious Klown – picked this one up as well. One can check out the trailer, which goes for a more serious feel than the last look, and poster below from Apple – and no, it has nothing to do with the...

While Sacha Baron Cohen has gone into character for films like "Borat" and "Bruno" to deliver laughs along with a sharp look at America's social and cultural hang-ups and curiosities, in the provocative documentary "The Ambassador," filmmaker Mads Brügger takes things one step further. Produced by Lars Von Trier's Zentropa, the documentary finds Brügger evolving a new style of moviemaking called "performative journalism," and posing as a businessman designing a matchbook factory, he heads to the Central African Republic, shooting the various meetings and encounters he has in order to shed a light on the greed, violence and corruption in the area. "I want to show an Africa stripped of NGOs, Bono, child soldiers and kids with bloated bellies, to show the kind of people you never see in the documentaries: white businessmen and diplomats, the fat cats in the urban centers, all the people who are in post-colonial French.

Drafthouse Films, the film distribution arm of the world-famous Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, announced their acquisition of The Ambassador, a darkly comic, genre-bending documentary that exposes the corrupt business of selling diplomatic titles to exploit the lucrative and limited resources of war torn, third world nations.

Filmmaker/journalist/provocateur Mads Br&#252gger (Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner for Red Chapel) uses humor in his jaw-dropping descent into one of the most dangerous places on the planet: Central African Republic. From each absurdly terrifying and hilarious situation to the next, The Ambassador is a one-of-a-kind excursion from the man whom The Huffington Post has called "the most provocative filmmaker in the world." The Ambassador is scheduled to launch on VOD and digital platforms August 4th and theatrically in New York City (IFC Center) on August 29th, Los Angeles (The Cinefamily) and Austin (Alamo Drafthouse locations) on August 31st.

Financed by filmmaker Lars Von Trier...

Drafthouse Films, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's distribution arm, announced today that they have acquired Mads Brügger's Sundance hit "The Ambassador," the follow-up to his Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner "The Red Chapel." Drafthouse will release the film theatricallly in at least three cities in late August and will also release the film on VOD and digital platforms on August 4. In "The Ambassador," Brügger exposes corruption in the Central African Republic when he gets a fake diplomatic visa and happens upon some very shady international business dealings. Check out our own Peter Knegt's interview with Brügger about the film here. The press release is reprinted below: Controversial Sundance Hit Innovates New Documentary Genre “Performative Journalism” with Hilarious & Shocking Results Austin, TX – Monday, July 9th 2011 – Drafthouse Films, the film distribution arm of the...