Servant of the People
It’s the kind of “art imitates life” situation nobody would believe if it wasn’t true. Current Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was just a comedian when he starred in this 2015 sitcom, playing a regular guy whose frustrations with the system led to him being elected as the President of Ukraine. He was then elected as the real President of Ukraine by a population frustrated by the system.
This is a warm-hearted, can-do comedy that doesn’t shy away from the real problems faced by Ukraine (with the occasional mention of the country’s fraught relationship with Russia thrown in). At the time, the character Zelenskyy played – honest, with a strong sense of right and wrong and a solid devotion to his country – seemed exactly how a would-be politician would like to be seen. Recent events have proved his character to be more than skin-deep.
Vice
The film Vice looks at the life of perhaps the most powerful man on earth during the George W Bush administration – that’d be Bush’s Vice President, Dick Cheney (played by an unrecognisable Christian Bale). Rarely sympathetic but always recognisably human, this startlingly funny satire doesn’t so much lift the lid on Cheney’s actions as it simply points out what was obvious all along.
The collection of comedy grotesques around Cheney (played by an all-star cast including Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell, Steve Carell and Tyler Perry) are so ghastly it’s hard to believe they basically ran the world for eight years. The Iraq war they started was so horrible (yet profitable for their backers) that the only way to look at it clearly was through comedy; watch it with the hilarious yet equally appalling In the Loop to see the UK side of the story.
Vice is now streaming at SBS On Demand.
The Inner Circle
Surprisingly, this thriller is based on a real event: every year Swedish politicians, media and fans gather at Almedalen for a week of non-stop political action (and DJ battles). But in The Inner Circle, the year’s political Woodstock comes with a surprise: the current PM is planning to resign, and she’s already chosen David Ehrling (Niklas Engdahl) as her successor. Problem is, he has a shady past and a lot of rivals.
If he’s going to survive the week, his media advisor Lena Nilsdotter (Nanna Blondell) is going to have to be at the top of her game (and deal with a murder on the side). Ruthless power plays, family dramas and one determined cop who just might bring down a government; this is everything you could want in a political drama.
Sextortion
The stakes couldn’t be lower – or funnier – in this New Zealand comedy where fringe conservative politician Darren Bellows (Thomas Sainsbury) discovers his weekly sessions with S&M dominatrix Shona (Kathleen Burns) are about to go public just as he’s set to launch his party’s 2020 election campaign.
He’s a reluctant leader (his dad’s the power behind the throne) and his party are barely a statistical blip on election day, but he’s still got a marriage to save and a reputation to uphold. Will Darren and campaign manager Hari (Stephen Tamarapa) be able to find out why he’s been targeted before the hypocritical façade that is his life falls down and leaves him naked on the public stage?
Shadow Lines
Often television presents politics as an end in itself, a setting where characters struggle among themselves for personal power. Shadow Lines has plenty of power struggles, but as a (fictionalised) look at the operations of a secret unit within Finland during the 1950s – a period where the country was walking a fine line between the West and the Soviet Union on their doorstep – it’s also a look at a time when politics was literally about charting the course of a nation.
For the women and men of secret organisation The Fist, both East and West are forces to be played off against each other for the nation’s survival. There are personal dramas here too as Helena Korhonen (Emmi Parviainen) pieces together her family’s shattered past and her godfather (Hannu-Pekka Björkman) uses The Fist to play powerbroker. Both the KGB and CIA are looking to tip Finland their way; in Helsinki’s corridors of power, a very delicate game is being played.
The Minister
Plenty of dramas have been built around a leader’s rise to power. But what happens once they get there if they’re not quite up to the job? As Benedikt Ríkhardsson, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson () ticks all the boxes for a swift climb to Iceland’s top job. He’s a charming and charismatic outsider who has tapped into the electorate’s desire for real change to the system that’s let them down.
He’s also increasingly manic. Having someone in the top job whose choices are erratic (and getting worse) is a stress the system isn’t designed to deal with, especially when those around him are only there because of him. Some try to help him, some try to take advantage. Even as his government becomes increasingly impulsive, Ríkhardsson remains a charismatic, popular leader. Which just may be the most dangerous thing of all.
Red Election
This pan-European thriller begins with a Russian secret agent poisoning a double agent on British soil. UK agent Beatrice Ogilvy (Lydia Leonard) is swiftly plunged into a mystery involving a nuclear reactor, a referendum on Scottish independence, and a trip to Copenhagen where she teams up with fellow spy Katrine Poulsen (Victoria Carmen Sonne), whose partner has vanished after working on the reactor’s security system.
The good cop/rogue cop dynamic between the two leads and an up-to-the-minute look at a world of constant surveillance and deep fake videos would make this compelling viewing at any time. But in positioning Russia as the big bad (the series is called Red Election, after all), it’s somehow even more topical now than it was in 2020.
Borgen
Borgen is a television classic for a reason. Across three seasons it follows one woman’s struggle with the system from the inside, as politician Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) unexpectedly finds herself as Denmark’s new Prime Minister. What follows is a gritty, down-to-earth look at politics as it’s lived, with a lead who can (and must) be ruthlessly pragmatic, but still retains just enough idealism to be a leader we can cheer for.
Navigating rivalries and factions, dealing with hot button issues like immigration and the environment, facing down misogynist colleagues and putting together sometimes surprising coalitions; it’s all part of the job. If you’re inspired by this look at a woman leading her nation, a good follow-up is Australian documentary , looking at Julia Gillard’s stint as PM and the relentless barrage of opposition she faced – and faced down.
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