Mads Brügger's "The Ambassador" is no doubt the most controversial among the Danish films selected for IDFA 2011. Already showing an acute talent for intricate role-playing in his previous "The Red Chapel", Brügger takes his method to a new level in "The Ambassador" parading as a Liberian diplomat in the Central African Republic.
Watch out for eight titles
"The Ambassador" has the privilege of opening the festival on 16 November and is part of the Feature-Length Competition, where it is joined by Lise Birk Pedersen's film about politics, seduction and a growing current of pro-Putin activism in "Putin's Kiss".
A third film in competition is Andreas Koefoed and Christian Bonke's "Ballroom Dancer" in the IDFA First Apearance section. The duo is signing their first feature-length documentary with a story tracing the struggle for a former ballroom king to dance his way back to the top. The film opened CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen Documentary Festival, two weeks ago.
The IDFA audience will also have the chance to discover Christian Sønderby Jepsen's "The Will", winner of Best Danish Doc at CPH:DOX, Pernille Rose Grønkjær's "Love Addict", Ida Grøn's "The Kid and the Clown", Morten Henriksen's "Karen Blixen – Behind her Mask", and a special screening of Michael Madsen's highly acclaimed 2010 title "Into Eternity".
Two strong profiles pitching at Forum
Michael Madsen is pitching his next film "The Visit" at IDFA's co-financing market. For the last year the director has been busy promoting his philosophical pondering on nuclear waste, "Into Eternity", to international audiences, and now Madsen is preparing a film labelled "a cosmic documentary comedy" about how we would react if we were to be visited by intelligent life from outer space.
No less of a voyage into the unknown is "The Expedition to the End of the World" by Daniel Dencik and Janus Metz, the latter enjoying his international breakthrough last year with "Armadillo" about Danish troops in Afghanistan. This new film takes us to the otherworldly fjord system of Northeast Greenland to explore the beginnings – and maybe the end – of the Earth.
Two more titles are pitching at Forum: "Break of Dawn" by Berit Madsen and Radiator Film, and "Mercy Mercy" by Katrine Kjær and Fridthjof Film.
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Visit our festival website where you will find plenty of material on the Danish documentaries at IDFA.