The astonishing story of how a triple outsider became the de facto leader of the Free World
DIRECTED BY EVA WEBER
Merkel, an unofficial co-production between the UK, Germany and Denmark. The UK producers are Passion Pictures, Odd Girl Out Productions and the Scottish production company Sonja Henrici Creates. The German producer is LOOKSfilm and the Danish producer is Real Lava. The feature documentary project about the former German chancellor Angela Merkel is directed by Eva Weber.
I wasn’t born a chancellor and I never forgot this”
Angle Merkel
For years, Angela Merkel, the first woman Chancellor of Germany, was Western Europe’s most powerful leader. Nonetheless, she remains something of an enigma. Clear-eyed, cool-headed, diligent, and methodical, she put her politics first, setting ideology aside. A pastor’s daughter who grew up behind the iron curtain in the former DDR (East Germany), Merkel re-invented herself after the fall of the Berlin Wall to become “the world’s most powerful woman” (Forbes, 2020), often outsmarting and outstaying her male opponents. But despite her historic 16-year Chancellorship of Germany, the international public still knows very little about her.
Using vast archive materials and interviews with those who know her – friends, journalists, political allies, and critics – the film creates a rich portrait, from Merkel’s upbringing in communist East Germany, studies in quantum chemistry, her surprising start in politics and fast ascent. It reminds us how Merkel’s success came despite the double standards facing women leaders – the hard judgment and incessant scrutiny – and makes a case for politics marked by truth and integrity. It is a thoughtful re-examination of her life and career from both a domestic and international perspective, told with humor, subtlety, and poignancy befitting of its subject.
DIRECTOR EVA WEBER
PRODUCERS LIZZIE GILLETT ● SONJA HENRICI ● SIGRID DYEKJÆR
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER DAWN PORTER
94 MIN. ● 2022 ● ENGLISH