Fang den Haider
Director: Nathalie Borgers
Writer: Nathalie Borgers
Seen on: 17.6.2015

Plot:
Jörg Haider was an infamous Austrian politician. Leader of right-wing party FPÖ, he brought them into power, then funded another right-wing party, became governor of Carinthia and even seven years after his death, financial and other scandals around him and his party colleagues still haunt Austria. Nevertheless, Haider still has a devoted following, especially in Carinthia, so Nathalie Borgers – a Belgian filmmaker living in Austria – decided to examine his popularity, especially in light of the general move to the right in Europe.

Fang den Haider is a very personal look at politics in Austria and Europe. Borgers doesn’t try to show “how it is”, but she very openly puts herself and her perspective into the film, making it an interesting approach to documentaries themselves, and the topic in particular.

Personally, I commend filmmakers who dare to make it clear that they are not being objective but that they share how they see things. Because I think that whether we admit to it or not, we all see the world through out very own eyes with our very own biases etc. And being open about that and pointing out those biases as far as we are aware of them makes for more honesty (and in a weird way, for more objectivity as well). So I very much loved that Borgers starts that documentary with her own approach: pointing out that she doesn’t understand the phenomenon Haider, that the move to the right in European politics scares her and that she wants to find out how those things work.

That being said, the approach doesn’t always work for me. In particular we get a horoscopeof Haider at the very beginning of the film that Borgers asked for as part of her research and I honestly couldn’t care less. My stance towards astrology oscillates between “well, people can believe any shit they like” and “it is disgusting how people are tricked by that crap”, so it’s safe to say that I’m not a fan or a believer and I’d rather have had the documentary astrology-free.

But other than that, Borgers gave us interesting insights and fascinating interview partners. I have to admit that not much was new to me, but to see it again in such density did hammer it all home again: the nazi cesspool out of which Haider ascended and that is still going strong in Carinthia (and, let’s face it, the rest of Austria). The corruption that surrounds him and his party. The devotion he inspired and still inspires.

What did surprise me, though, was how normal all of these things are to the people involved. Be it the old lady in her kitchen, talking about the honor, discipline and achievements the people of today are simply lacking, while cooking for her interviewer. Be it Peter Westenthaler, who thought it was simply a fun anecdote that it was no problem to share on camera that Haider just loved election campaigns so much that they had to come up with ways to make it possible for him to campaign, when there was no election coming: and so they ended up making four popular petitions for referendums: not for any political or, gasp, ideological reason, but simply to appease Haider’s vanity. [And compared to what other corruption charges they face, it actually is just a fun anecdote.]

It is a frankly ludicrous situation and story – which makes it so incredibly important that Borgers told it.

Summarizing: If you have any interest for Austrian politics, you have to watch it.