Alison Klayman: My strategy was to get Steve Bannon to underestimate me

In the opening of ”The Brink” there is a scene where Steve Bannon confesses his admiration for the 40's German engineering after a previous visit in Auschwitz-Birkenau: ”I walked around and just, ‘oh, God’, this is precision in every detail”, says Trumps the former chefstrateg and keeps a rant about how he he marvel at how ”the good people of Germany sat at his desk and planned the Holocaust of kaffemuggarna as if it were any company but at the same time, was ”total isolation from the whole of the moral horror of it all”.

For a director who wants her so to expose herself, it was a perfect party from the controversial founder of the Breitbart a few years ago, was launched as ”a platform for the alt-right movement”.

– These strange statements that came completely out of the blue when we had filmed for about eight months. The replicas reminded me of why I wanted to make this movie. For me, who comes from a family with Förintelseöverlevare, so it was a perfect illustration of the thesis of the banality of evil, " says the documentary filmmaker Alison Klayman when the DN hit her at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen in connection with the dokumentärfilmsfestivalen Cph:dox.

a progressive feminist with a strong jewish identity that would get punktmarkera Steve Bannon was an irony of fate. Klayman happened to be friends with the film producer Marie Therese Guirgis, in the early 2000s worked for Bannon when he was the head of a film company.

Guirgis was deeply disappointed at his former boss when he moved into the White house with Trump and was the architect behind the attempts to create a ban on entry of muslims to the united states. She succeeded, however, after many attempts, to persuade Bannon that the set up in front of the camera in a documentary.

" I think that the idea appealed to his ego and vanity. And for me as a filmmaker it was about as if someone would offer me to get access to Joseph Goebbels, 1930. In Trumps the united states, unfortunately, it is not hard to draw parallels to the political development in the 30-century Europe. I want to try to understand what are the mechanisms that a society can track, " says Alison Klayman, who made his debut seven years ago with the much talked about documentary, ”Ai Weiwei: never sorry”.

”The brink” portrays Steve Bannons struggle to become a global prominent figure of the far right in the best cinema véritéstil. In just over a year – from October 2017, shortly after the american mellanårsvalet in november 2018 – she got to follow Bannon as a fly on the wall. Klayman wanted to sign a portrait that goes behind the where serietidningsliknande the Darth Vader figure that says that ”darkness is good”. She believes that the film is an attempt to demystify rather than to humanize.

" Only that you spread the hate ideas so, it doesn't necessarily mean that you throw up bile around the clock. It is a deadly misconception that the hate people can not be both charming and pleasant. Although I do not dislike him as I do not share his world view that he should be held responsible for. I think, sadly, that he knows exactly what forces he is playing with.

Steve Bannon. Photo: Antonello Nusca/Polaris

to point out that the recording did not take place under any false assumptions.

" We were open that it would be a critical but fair portrait of him. If you do a person justice, the result is much harder to wave away. I also was a younger woman who he looked up to did that he dropped the garden, she smiles and adds:

– My daily strategy was to try to get Steve Bannon to underestimate me – but to underestimate him, she smiles.

Already at their first meeting realized Klayman that Bannon was a perfect protagonist.

" He is a physically big person who also has a big and charismatic personality: ”oh my god, this dude will say things”. He reminds me of a traveling salesman who constantly appear before an audience. Unlike many others, he says, ”the quiet part” of their message very loudly.

In the film appear Bannon as a småcharmig but disorganized workaholic who loves to manipulate their environment and cultivate his own myth. For the most part he acts beguiling, relaxed with a charm and a self ironic humor where he runs all by himself.

unlike Ai Weiwei, who is a committed and intelligent thinkers, so I was able to finish all the Steve Bannons sentences in his sleep.

him hack in the heel between the various meetings, on the privatjeten between different kampanjträffar where he makes his entrance and exit through the back doors and köksingångar along with their bodyguards. In one of the scenes, he was sitting in a conference room in London and trying to gather various representatives of the european nationalhögern in ”The movement” – which can also Kent Ekeroth, who was previously the member of parliament for The sweden democrats.

" Right, ”The movement” was not at all the success that Bannon had in mind for the spring's EUROPEAN elections. But he still works as an ideological adviser and economic consultant to all who want his services, " says Alison Klayman.

– If the Bannons personal drivers is about power, money and fame, so is his political goal as complex as his world view. Right now, he is trying to recast their ideology of ”white nationalism” to ”economic nationalism”, but the core is anti-muslim and want to limit folkströmmarna in the world. He says that the judeo-christian western world is being overrun by muslims is strikingly similar to the manifesto from the terrorist who committed mass murder in New Zealand.

To keep up with Bannon during the thirteen months were full enough of Alison Klayman.

– unlike Ai Weiwei, who is a committed and intelligent thinkers, so I was able to finish all the Steve Bannons sentences in his sleep. He is smart, but I also realized how shallow his knowledge is, if one scratches the surface.

Read more: Errol Morris documentary on Bannon is a failure