Mads Brügger's THE AMBASSADOR opens IDFA festival (and starts a row...)

This week the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam starts with a bang: the opening film is Mads Brügger's "The Ambassador". Made up almost exclusively of hidden-camera footage, the film shows Mads acquiring a diplomatic passport and travelling to the Central African Republic to investigate the trade in blood diamonds, posing as a Liberian Consul.

Now that the documentary is being shown it (not surprisingly) ruffles quite some feathers, not in the least those of the Dutch businessman who helped Mads get his diplomatic passport. The man has flown from Liberia to The Netherlands and is now busy proclaiming on Dutch radio and Dutch television that he has been duped, that Mads used illegal means to get services and information, and that in the documentary he now comes across as a crook. This guy also tries to have all screenings of the film forbidden.

Needless to say, nearly all screenings of "The Ambassador" have now been sold out. Thank you Mr. Dutch businessman!