Patrioterne

What does fear do to people and which consequences does that have for a society? This was the principal question for the Danish director Tómas Gislason in making Patrioterne. For this film, he travelled across the United States for fifty days, to capture his own experiences in God’s Own Country. This was his second attempt; a previous report about the extreme right wing in America had not been successful. With O.J. Simpson‘s trial and the Oklahoma bombing still fresh in everybody‘s mind, he came upon intense emotions this time. As patriotic groups can easily and cheaply disseminate their message via the Internet, the filmmaker looked for informants on the hate-site and got immersed in a world where fear, paranoia and conspiracy theories reign. In the road movie that Patrioterne actually is, Gislason himself is the main character. Initially he wanted to assume a confrontational political standpoint for his film, but once he got under way he realised that it would be better to just listen to the stories and opinions. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)