采访导演
全文
http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2012/09/interview-mads-brugger-ambassador-director-central-african-republic/2#ixzz2oAATt25V
【非洲现实】
V：What was your end game going into The Ambassador? When you first envisioned the project, what did you hope to find out and in a perfect world what were you going to get out of it?
B：Well, I’m a “Let’s see what happens” kind of guy. I was thinking what kind of people we will meet, and what sort of environment will I be involved in. But I did have ideas about what kind of place this Central African Republic is. It is the most forgotten country in Africa if not the world; it does attract a lot of shady people because it is the ultimate hideaway. So, I did suspect I would meet some bizarre characters, which I really did, but I had no idea that I would run into characters such as the head of security of that was assassinated. That was something that really came as a surprise. I was also, almost on a daily basis, shocked about how easy it was for me to operate in the Central African Republic, and how few questions I was confronted with about who I was and what I was up to. Take a look at the most obvious question, “How come a very white guy is representing an African country to another African country?” This very obvious question was never asked by anybody. I had the ambition or idea that a diplomatic channel would be an access ticket, it would grant me access to the inner sanctuaries of power in a failed African state, and it surely did.
V：How much were you willing to pay to buy diplomatic credentials? How did you get in contact with those people that you were trying to buy them from? It almost seemed that you were Googling people in the movie.
B：Well, I did do a lot of research about this business of obtaining diplomatic access. There are a lot of scholars in this field. What I found out in an early stage was that anything below a hundred thousand dollars is a scam, and to be avoided. Further more, if they don’t ask to meet you in person, before anything happens, then it is also a scam. Third of all, if they do not fairly quickly suggest a meeting with a representative of the government that you are to represent, it is also a scam. But apart from that, it’s incredibly easy, and if you have the money and you have a business suit and you are capable of speaking English or French you are in the loop.
V：In a place that is that openly corrupt, you had the match factory as a cover, and I was curious how the cover would function, and why you planned that, and how that worked.
B：As a cover it was working really well, I would say, and having an Indian matchmaking expert come to town made me seem very credible. The idea that would actually go all the way to have an Indian matchmaker flown in simply doesn’t seem possible. Actually, if the place hadn’t been as corrupt as it is and dysfunctional as it is, the business model for the match factory really worked. According to the Indian match expert, he said, “We could make a lot of money on this.”
【拍摄伪装】
V：When you were meeting with diplomatic paper brokers, how in character were you when dealing with them?
B：I was being an alternate version of myself. I told them I was a hugely successful media entrepreneur from Denmark. That I made a lot of money in publishing and film producing – which I have not at all – and that I was looking for a second career. That’s about it.
V：They didn’t ask much further than that?
B：No. From the beginning I was really concerned what happened if people would really Google me in depth, because if you do begin to peel the layers of Mr. Cortzen, you will end up with me, but that apparently never happened.
V：There’s a lot of people that you filmed where I wondered what you had to say to these people for them to allow you to film them. What was your cover, and what were they thinking that was the reason for filming them?
B：We were using a Canon EOS camera, which looks like a still camera. I told them the photographer was my first officer, because it sounds official and impressive. So they thought he was taking still pictures and they didn’t care, really. Eventually we got to film a lot of things, which would be impossible to film, such as the whole process of leaving with Mr. Gilbert. ［Brügger speaks here of a sequence in the film when the gold-toothed, crocodile-smiled diamond-mine owner, Mr. Gilbert takes Brügger on a tour of the mine, and as they're leaving in an SUV, Gilbert's Muslim child-bride tries to jump in the car with them. Gilbert shoves her out and exhorts them not to "shame him in front of the white men."］
【我最想知道的】
V：Do you know what has happened to Colin Evans and Mr. Tijssen? What’s happened to them since you showed them in the movie?
B：I don’t know really. The website of Colin Evans seems to have closed down more or less. They have a front page saying, “We do not sell diplomatic titles.” Willem Tijssen I have heard a lot from. He’s very angry, and very active on the internet, slandering me and the film. He has a blog where he writes about it. He tried to stop the screening of the film when it premiered in Amsterdam at the IDFA Festival. He went on a hot show with a debate with the chairman of the festival, and then went on the most popular news talk show, but he really did a bad job for himself, I will say. But he did great PR for the film.
V：What is his excuse, or how does he explain his function?
B：I don’t know really. I don’t understand. Take a look at his blog. ［The blog in question seems to have been removed, but I did find comments from Tijssen where he basically claims that Brügger is a Nazi because of his association with Lars von Trier, who is a Nazi because he made that comment about "I understand Hitler." Which only makes Von Trier a Nazi if you're an idiot.］
V：For you personally, which place was scarier? Where did you fear more for your personal safety? Liberia or Central African Republic?
B：Definitely the Central African Republic, because it is the lack of reality principle and causality is really stressful. It’s a place where anything can happen anytime, but that is also what makes it so very interesting.
V：You mean because you just don’t know what people’s motives are or why they’re even there.
B：Exactly, and having cocktails with the son of the President, maybe ten minutes later you will find yourself in a torture dungeon, not because of something you have said or done but because of something completely out of your control because of the lack of causality. Furthermore, being very white and being very visible, of course, makes you feel very exposed. On the other hand, by being so very exposed and visible, dressing like a neo-colonial dandy, people think, “If he is dressing like this he has to be for real.” No one in their right mind would come to CAR wearing these outfits without being for real. Furthermore, they would think he has been very rich and powerful, so we will not kill him.
