NRThe Ambassador
To Break The Story, He Must Become The Story
Synopsis
The Ambassador (2011) is a Danish documentary directed by and starring Mads Brügger — watch online on iFILM. Brügger purchased a legitimate diplomatic passport naming him Liberia's ambassador-at-large, then flew to the Central African Republic with hidden cameras and a plan to expose the blood-diamond trade from within.
He plays the role hard — in a colonial-era white suit, bribing officials, attending state functions — while dealers discuss diamond smuggling over dinner like a routine business transaction. The deeper he goes, the more the comedy turns into something genuinely unsettling: the scam works because the system was built to accommodate exactly this. Brügger is both the journalist and the story.
He ran a similar undercover operation in North Korea for The Red Chapel (2009); this one is darker and carries more personal risk. The film played at CPH:DOX and drew wide festival attention. Stream The Ambassador online on iFILM.
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