Lars Thorsen and Fanny Bråten lead the far-right SIAN (Stop the Islamization of Norway) group which takes every opportunity to further their nationalist cause in as public and offensive a manner as possible. And it is particularly offensive.
They wear blasphemous cartoons on their tee-shirts, which filmmakers Fabien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge Rønning blur out, and they burn copies of the Quran over and over again (images of which are again blurred out in the film). They will do this outside the Norwegian Parliament, on public squares or even outside a mosque. One such mosque-located immolation set in motion a violent car chase which featured prominently across all Norwegian news outlets. Co-director Kjøge Rønning tells how another of the pair’s horrendous stunts (which involved dowsing a Quran in pig’s blood) was deemed too offensive to show even blurred out.
“Freedom of speech is highly regarded in Norway, which is considered to be one of the ‘freest’ countries in the world,” say the pair in their notes, articulating the dilemma at the film’s core. “Article 100 in the Norwegian Constitution makes it the responsibility of the State to protect freedom of speech. Since Thorsen’s message, and even the burning of a holy book, is legal, the police must protect him, according to the law. When you regard freedom of speech in that equation, have we gone too far? Are we in fact protecting abuse of freedom of speech? Where do we, as a society, draw a red line? Should we let extreme right wingers roam freely, spreading hate? Are we going from Democracy to Democrazy?”
Many folk in Norway believe Thorsen and Bråten to be buffoons operating within the margins of society, but recent history shows that cautionary measures are essential to protect against such lone operatives. In July 2011 the right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed eight people by detonating a van bomb in Oslo, before murdering 69 participants of a Workers’ Youth League (AUF) at a Norwegian summer camp.
SIAN’s message is that Islam is an “evil” religion, and that Muslim immigration to Europe will cause a genocide of the native population. And according to SIAN’s Bråten, the majority of her native population (who also happen to object to her message) are no longer “Vikings,” rather “wimps.”
“We wanted to make a film about freedom of speech and we are using him [Thorsen] because he’s basically a challenge or a danger to freedom of speech,” says co-director Kjøge Rønning. “He’s abusing it and he’s trying to change the way that society [enjoys it].”
Of course, Thorsen also understands the power of media, the filmmakers underline, even though media outlets are reporting on his stunts less and less. He knows that each time he alerts the authorities to an upcoming event, they are obliged to inform the police who must then erect barriers and deploy scores of officers to control the subsequent situation which might arise. “He gets less and less attention [but] he gets more and more extreme in his actions,” says co-director Greenberg. “But there’s one thing to remember about [Thorsen], he really believes any kind of PR is good PR.”
“Even though he is crazy with stats and he’s very kind of hyper rational, even though he might be living in a psychotic sphere or he might be living in deep inside his rabbit hole, he is very rational in many ways and it’s very intriguing to see how such a rational guy can believe in such dark theories,” adds Kjøge Rønning. (Out of courtesy, the pair sent a copy of the finished film to Thorsen, who is yet to respond.)
Were the filmmakers therefore concerned that they were inadvertently offering Thorsen the oxygen of publicity as he wages his campaign of extremism.
“For us as directors, it has been an ethical challenge throughout the process and…we took a lot of measures to avoid exactly this,” says Kjøge Rønning. “I mean, people can take anything they see. You go to YouTube and you can jump down the rabbit hole and you can do that with any kind of video material, but we hope and we believe that we are not contributing to any such rabbit holing.”
The directors were also careful to remain objective, despite their own reservations about his politics and tactics, and therefore proceed in observational mode and allow the subjects and their actions to reveal the story.
They also go on the other side of the barriers to follow antagonist Axel, a sharp young student who takes part in counter-demonstrations.
“We knew that we needed a dramaturgical counter-voice,” says Kjøge Rønning. “Because we were not giving that counter-voice ourselves, we decided to have this character come in and be this counter-voice.”
“Axel is a bright and brave young man who, after thinking it through, chose to be part of the film, and we are very happy for that. Axel was also perfect because he is a liberal leftist with a very open mind and cognitive horizon,” the pair add on their notes for the film.
As one may expect, the Impact potential for the film is considerable and one that Greenberg and Kjøge Rønning are keen to explore. “We were looking to create debates about freedom of speech and to take this film as an example and have those kinds of discussions in schools, universities and institutions,” says Kjøge Rønning who is also keen to screen Norwegian Democrazy in the Norwegian parliament, which is in the process of drafting legislation against hate speech.
“These laws are in the shaping – they’re going to be changed basically,” adds Greenberg. “So hopefully our film can contribute to making a better law. Basically. We have an international distributor [Journeyman]. They specialize in these [kinds of film]. We’re doing Hot Docs now and then Munich – the international premier and the European premiere. So hopefully that will spark something as well.”
“We believe the documentary is becoming increasingly important. Reality is getting distorted in our world: AI, algorithms, fake news, social media, people read much less, woke/anti-woke, and so on… A good documentary has a topical quality about it, which is solid and indispensable. A good documentary shows; it doesn’t tell. A good documentary has the possibility to change people and their behaviour – that is our motivation with every film, to make a change somehow. Let’s see how it goes this time.”
Norwegian Democrazy is produced by Antipode Films, which was responsible for the 2024 Berlin Panorama Audience Award winner No Other Land as well as Firouzeh Khosrovani’s sublime IDFA 2021 Feature-length doc winner Radiograph of a Family.
Additional questions posed by Dimitra Kouzi.
