Eine deutsche Partei

It is not just any political party to whose inner workings we are being given access here. The right-wing “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) has been represented in parliament since 2017. In some parts of Germany, every fourth person votes for this party while the German public at large considers it to be anti-democratic and racist. Two of its sub-organisations, the “Young Alternative” and the so-called “Wing”, have been classified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as suspected right-wing extremist groups.
Simon Brückner and his two-person crew followed numerous AfD politicians with the camera between 2019 and 2021. There are no interviews, he does not comment, nor does he intervene. He merely observes the work of politicians at three levels – district, state and federal. He listens in at “Young Alternative” events in Zehdenick where “Brandenburg sand” rhymes with “homeland” and the national anthem is on the playlist, as well as at policy disputes and parliamentary group discussions about Germany’s Basic Law and about what can and cannot be said. This German political party is neither mocked nor is it demonised. Instead, the party speaks of “German butterflies” and of itself in an act of deconstruction that makes clear where argument ends and contradictions begin.