Tripping with Zhirinovsky

Two years after his portrait of Radovan Karadžic in Serbian Epics, Pawel Pawlikowski portrays another highly controversial politician, the Russian ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. He is followed during a boat trip on the Volga with two hundred adherents, and during a visit to New York City, where he attracts a great deal of media attention. ‘To American standards, I am a success’, Zhirinovsky says. ‘In five years' time, I have risen from the masses to the top, from an income of 200 roubles a month to 200 million.’ In the editing process, Pawlikowski chooses scenes that make people laugh. Still, the spectator are left with a nagging feeling. Is Zhirinovsky really a dangerous idiot, or just a workaday populist? According to the director, he should be seen as an evil genius of post-modern politics: one day advocating the introduction of free trade, the next a confirmed chauvinist. (Sarajevo Film Festival)