Society & Economy

Grrr! Europe! European despite himself

How do we live in Europe? What do we really know about our ´fellow countrymen´? With its partners, Franco-German channel ARTE inaugurated an ambitious collection of twenty documentaries which explore the lives of various inhabitants of the European Union. Be they squatters, ministers, farmers or holidaymakers, they were followed by young film-makers from their country equipped only with a basic digital camera. These are entertaining portraits which both arouse our curiosity and encourage reflection, sometimes with a provocative and ironic tone.

A guided tour around the European Parliament, given by an English euro-skeptic minister…
Nigel Farrage is one of the three UK Independence Party ministers elected to the European Parliament. He hates this place, and the people who work here. He sees his five-year mandate as a sentence, and compares the Parliament to an Orwellian nightmare. Guiding the viewer through the meandering parliamentary corridors, he highlights the strangest characteristics of this organization. During his visit, he further deepens his stance, proclaims his rhetoric and continues his work day in the same way a typical businessman in the City of London might…