Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

billcr12 The Ambassador looks like a ninety minute version of the television news program 60 Minutes, with only Mike Wallsce jumping out for a confrontation missing. A Danish man finds a couple of different companies who sell diplomatic credentials for cash. Using a series of videos from hidden cameras, he shows the widespread corruption which crosses all national and racial boundaries. A major problem is, although most of the meetings are in English, many are in French, without translation. He buys an official diplomacy for $130,000 and sets up a match factory with an Indian guy as cover for diamond mining. Thousands of such "diplomacies" are uncovered by the filmmaker, which isn't a big surprise to anyone who watches the news. Everyone has a price, as the saying goes, and even here in America, we have over 30,000 lobbyists, who bribe government officials every day to pass laws favorable to their clients.As far as the documentary goes, it is extremely redundant, with endless meetings with officials being paid off for helping the "diplomat" do business in Africa. The Ambassador is done with a satirical bent, but is never very funny, given the subject matter in the end, which is blood diamonds. Overall, it is a sad commentary on the human race; we are all doomed.

hokrollo This documentary is both very funny, and very serious at the same time. Digging into a widely known topic, which on the other hand never gets exploited. While the evidence may be rather thin, you're not in doubt what is happening the most of the time. And when the evidence are not there at all, there's usually the humerus way of exploiting the corrupt people in the process. So overall a very good original humerus foreign political documentary, which still contains some good inside on the topic. The 9 is for the really creative way this is made, and thereby it's originality compared to similar documentaries. Enjoy.

laura_13-898-503657 I watched this movie as it was selected as the opening film of the Dutch documentary film festival IDFA in 2011. It was a big disappointment. It's completely unclear to me what point the film maker wants to make here. There is not a single proof of 'real' diamond smuggling. The film only contains a lot of suggestive references to illegal behaviour by others without any confirmation. It rather seems like the film maker was not able to collect enough evidence for what he set out to do. However, the film maker himself obviously did engage in ethical questionable behaviour.Even without watching the film, it's obvious that in a country such as the Central African Republic in its current state with e.g. a poor human rights situation and a history of civil war, one cannot expect the same standards of legal and ethical behaviour that we expect in the developed world. However, a statement such as 'there is a ruling political class in the capital which spends most of its time on illegal activities' without any further references adds no value whatsoever.I also have no understanding for the approach of portraying himself as the parody of a 'neo-colonial' businessman. It's occasionally mildly funny, but beyond that rather feels embarrassing for the film maker himself than for the Africans who go along with his behaviour.Thus, overall this film is neither worth watching nor worth the attention it got.

Benno Mads Brügger - whose last documentary consisted entirely of ultra rare recordings from deep inside North Korea - is releasing a new documentary; this time about corruption in the Central African Republic (CAR). Not posing as a diplomat, but having bribed his way to actual diplomatic immunity, Mads travels to the capital Bangui to set up a consulate and mingle with shady businessmen and poor, clueless locals.A lot of the footage has been captured with hidden cameras, hence of less than perfect quality, the rest with a Canon 5D which no-one in the entire country recognized as a film camera. Real life crooks exposing themselves include European dealers of diplomatic passports, local criminals / businessmen, the now dead chief of the CAR secret service and some international diplomats.It appears corruption is more widespread than most would assume. Illegal trading in diamonds is much more widespread than most could imagine. And that France, the former colonial master, is still meddling in affairs there - in a completely amoral fashion.A must-see for anyone interested in foreign aid, blood diamonds, international diplomacy, the exploitation of Africa or just how to do a documentary. Genre-wise it is related to the works of Michael Moore and Sacha Baron Cohen, I'd say. Don't miss it.