Meuthen's Party
Documentary
93 Minutes / 2017
SYNOPSIS
Anti-immigrant and pro traditional social values, Germany’s new populist party, AfD (Alternative for Germany), is poised for a fight in the 2016 state elections. Enter a polite economics professor, Dr. Jörg Meuthen. Averse to the bluster of fervent hard-liners, he takes a quiet, rational approach, hoping to win uninitiated minds first and “deplorable” hearts second.
So unassuming, Meuthen thinks nothing of allowing student filmmaker Marc Eberhardt to accompany him on his campaign trail. Rolling out his strategy of reason and facts on the middle class in beer halls, he quells jeering crowds of protestors by finding common ground, inciting conversation rather than invective.
But it’s at his party’s national convention where he shows his true political face, as the camera pulls back to reveal the far more worrying scale of AfD’s base and leadership. What results is an unexpected, unvarnished primer on the rise of the new normalized right.
(Hot Docs, Myrocia Watamaniuk)
CREDITS
Director / DoP / Sound
Marc Eberhardt
Produced by
Theresa Bacza
Editor
Pablo Ben Yakov
Color Grading & Artwork
Roland Scheliga
Sound Design & Re-Recording Mix
Simon Peter
Production Company
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Premiered at
Hot Docs, Toronto
FESTIVALS
Hot Docs, Toronto
Dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg
DokKa, Karlsruhe
Festival dei Popoli, Florence
Ji.hlava IDFF
Kasseler Dokumentar- & Videofilmfest
FILMZ, Mainz
Docs & Talks, Copenhagen
One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Prague
Nonfiktionale, Bad Aibling
Crossing Europe, Linz
Sehsüchte, Potsdam
Awarded for Best Documentary Feature