“People’s representative” gives an impressive look behind the scenes of the AfD: the viewer attends internal meetings, listens to office meetings and travels to the politicians’ constituencies.
A group of AfD MPs stands together and no longer understands the world. Why is there so much rejection in the Bundestag? they ask themselves. “Sheer hate,” one calls it. Then Norbert Kleinwächter provides an explanation. It’s a classic power structure, he says.
In order to strengthen one’s own position, one denounces and denigrates the other person. “That’s how it worked during colonization,” he says. Likewise with the witch hunts, the apartheid regimes and also in the Third Reich. “And they’re trying to do exactly the same thing with us!”
“Representatives of the People” leaves it up to the viewer to judge what he has seen
Scenes like these are shown in staccato rhythm in the documentary “Volks Representatives”. Director Andreas Wilcke accompanied four AfD MPs for three years after the 2017 federal elections. He filmed office meetings, internal group meetings, public appearances and constituency visits. The film shows members of parliament making sexist jokes, smiling at racist statements by party members, and playing down crimes in German history. None of this is new, but it has seldom been documented so closely and impressively. Because you can see behind the office doors.
The film itself does not classify what is seen. There is no off-speaker, no experts. It is up to the viewer to identify the crossing of borders as such. This always harbors the danger of offering the portrayed a stage. But simply by selecting the scenes, contradictions become obvious.
What the film lacks is an arc of suspense. He jumps back and forth between the protagonists. Some scenes start and end abruptly. The viewer always has to find his way in new surroundings. But that gets better and better as the film progresses. And it’s worth it.
The film “People’s Representatives” will be shown in selected cinemas from Thursday.
