The Ambassador / Legal Actions from Liberia
It already created problems at the premiere at the idfa (Amsterdam) festival in November last year, and now Danish newspapers reveal a new controversy around the Danish documentary “The Ambassador” by Mads Brügger, who appears in his film as the diplomat, Mr. Cortzen. The website of EDN (European Documentary Network), in general a must-read site for documentary professionals, has made an excellent summary of the current case. Read it all, here is a quote:
… In his documentary The Ambassador, Mads Brügger dresses up as a neo-colonialist and sets off for the Central African Republic to impersonate the Liberian consul, a tittle he has bought himself into. Brügger sets up a match factory run by pygmies as a cover for his ambitions in diamond trafficking. But Brügger is really there to document how the power in the country is allotted and traded… The Liberian Government issued a press release on July 30, 2012 where the Government threatens to take legal actions against Mads Brügger. In the press release it is stated that:
“The Government of Liberia finds this action by Mr. Cortzen to not only be immoral but criminal and offensive to the government and people of Liberia.
