Mondovisioni. I documentari di Internazionale

The Mondovisioni review: the documentaries of “Internazionale” tells the complexity of our times through exemplary and unfiltered stories that engage us and concern us.

THE PLOT

After the violent clashes between police and protesters at the European summit in Gothenburg in 2001, a government investigation concluded that the Swedish police needed to understand political movements more deeply, with many young people leaving traditional parties to engage for social justice and climate issues, as the methods used risked exacerbating tensions instead of calming them. This led to the creation of the “Dialogue Police,” a special unit based in Stockholm, operating full-time. In 2022, amidst various protests, burned copies of the Quran, and climate demonstrations, director Susanna Edwards began to follow the officers in their mission to safeguard everyone's freedom of expression, the right to gather in public spaces, and to protest. The team constantly walks the line between personal and professional: when wearing their uniforms they must set aside their opinions, but it is often their experiences and ability to establish trust that help reduce tension in complicated moments. In a polarized society, the team is united by a sense of humor and a common vocation: to defend democracy using dialogue as their only weapon.

THE DIRECTOR

Susanna Edwards works in both narrative and documentary cinema. In 1996 she won the Swedish Guldbagge award for Sunshadow, a documentary about the bullfighter Cristina Sánchez, which was distributed in 35 countries and won numerous international awards. In 2000 she received a Guldbagge nomination for her film Respect!, which follows four teenage girls from Farsta, a suburb of Stockholm. Her first narrative feature, Keillers Park, released in 2006, is a love story without a happy ending. In 2013 Dance My Heart Out, filmed in Cuba, won the VIZE 97 award from the Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation, a prestigious recognition for human rights. In 2017 she made the documentary Golden Girl, about Swedish boxer Frida Wallberg, and completed Capturing the Divine, about Anglo-Egyptian singer Natacha Atlas.