The Ambassador (2012)

What makes it different from others?

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

I cought this documentary by searching my TV channels. In fact, friend of mine was involved in gold mine business in Mali. His experience is very close to that of Mads. Very bizarre way of living, full of betrayals, corruption, promises and dissappoitments. Mads' experience was rather a happy end, one of a few in this business. Anyway, the story-telling, camera and selected characters are perfect. You can get very fast into the story and enjoy absurdity of the neo-colonial style of living. You become part of this crazy business. You wonder that you are in 21st century. In addition, his acting performance is great. Therefore thumb up Mads!

Mads Brugger plays his character well as an under cover shady diplomat. It is humorous simply because you know he is faking it and everyone around him is taking him seriously.The fact of the matter is that Mads Brugger was really risking his life to get this footage. There was no abort button, if things went horribly wrong we wouldn't even have this documentary. I would have liked him to go deeper into the shadow-world of Africa, but the fact of the matter is that he could have ended up dead in a ditch. He is lucky that he did not.This is not a documentary about morals, it is simply a documentary about how easy it is for the wealthy to become involved in corrupt government. It shows how far money can go in a corrupt society. The fact of the matter is that as stated in the movie, 2,500 of people were registered as Ambassadors to that single country in one year. That is just to give you an idea of how many wealthy people are living this lifestyle.

This documentary is both very funny, and very serious at the same time. Digging into a widely known topic, which on the other hand never gets exploited. While the evidence may be rather thin, you're not in doubt what is happening the most of the time. And when the evidence are not there at all, there's usually the humerus way of exploiting the corrupt people in the process. So overall a very good original humerus foreign political documentary, which still contains some good inside on the topic. The 9 is for the really creative way this is made, and thereby it's originality compared to similar documentaries. Enjoy.

I watched this movie as it was selected as the opening film of the Dutch documentary film festival IDFA in 2011. It was a big disappointment. It's completely unclear to me what point the film maker wants to make here. There is not a single proof of 'real' diamond smuggling. The film only contains a lot of suggestive references to illegal behaviour by others without any confirmation. It rather seems like the film maker was not able to collect enough evidence for what he set out to do. However, the film maker himself obviously did engage in ethical questionable behaviour.Even without watching the film, it's obvious that in a country such as the Central African Republic in its current state with e.g. a poor human rights situation and a history of civil war, one cannot expect the same standards of legal and ethical behaviour that we expect in the developed world. However, a statement such as 'there is a ruling political class in the capital which spends most of its time on illegal activities' without any further references adds no value whatsoever.I also have no understanding for the approach of portraying himself as the parody of a 'neo-colonial' businessman. It's occasionally mildly funny, but beyond that rather feels embarrassing for the film maker himself than for the Africans who go along with his behaviour.Thus, overall this film is neither worth watching nor worth the attention it got.