Meuthen’s Party
An ultra nationalist right-wing party is on the rise in Germany. As a polite economics professor campaigns as an Alternative for Germany candidate in the state parliamentary election, frontline access exposes the startling reach of his seemingly rational rhetoric. 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 its 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.
- Deutschland
- 01:33:00
- Director: Marc Eberhardt
- Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Producerin Theresa Bacza
- Photography: Marc Eberhardt, Rafael Starman
- Editing: Pablo Ben Yakov
- Sound: Marc Eberhardt, Simon Peter
- Languages: de
- Subtitles: en
- Year: 2017
- Website
- A38-Production Grant