Producer
Leopold Hoesch
Director
Dr. Torsten Körner & Matthias Schmidt
Producer
n/a
Genre
Documentary
Broadcaster
MDR, arte
Length
1 x 90'
Editor
Martin Schröder
Year
2016
Angela Merkel
The Unexpected

Who is Angela Merkel? What inspires her, what motivates her? After eleven years in office, we are not sure after all. Attempts to characterise her have been made and discarded: "procrastinator", "ice queen", "Mother Angela" - she has always remained a mystery. Until she surprised everyone in September 2015 with three words: "We can do it." Suddenly Merkel becomes the "refugee chancellor" - and polarises the people...

The 90-minute portrait "Angela Merkel: The Unexpected" by Dr Torsten Körner and Matthias Schmidt traces Angela Merkel's political path and shows a politician who knows what she is doing and sometimes plays on risk to get her way.

The film offers the chance to take a closer look and get to know Merkel better. It helps to understand why the chancellor behaves the way she does on the refugee issue. The film also tells of the constraints of a political path, of power fleeting and shared, and of the coincidences that sometimes decide a career. The two authors have gathered an impressive wealth of interviewees with whom they look at the power profile of Merkel the politician, but also explore Merkel the person.

The documentary unearths many rare or unknown Merkel images and shows them in a new light. Unusually enough, the German Chancellor also made herself available for an exclusive interview. The result is a profound portrait that goes beyond daily events to paint a picture of a politician who faces the unexpected, who has turned the unexpected into a political technique and who has often been able to profit from unexpected developments along her own path.

First broadcast:

Tuesday 06 December 2016, 20:15, ARTE.

Monday, 12 December 2016, 22:45, ARD.

Angela Merkel - The Unexpected

Who is Angela Merkel? What inspires her, what motivates her? After eleven years in office, we are not sure after all. Attempts to characterise her have been made and discarded: "procrastinator", "ice queen", "Mother Angela" - she has always remained a mystery. Until she surprised everyone in September 2015 with three words: "We can do it." Suddenly Merkel becomes the "refugee chancellor" - and polarises the people...

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