The
underlying business plan has potential. Dogs are definitely a status symbol for
China’s privileged elite and growing middle class. Hence, the success of A Dog’s Purpose at the Chinese box office.
A darker manifestation of the trend is the rapacious demand for Tibetan mastiffs,
as seen in Pema Tseden’s Old Dog.
Frederik Jorgensen wants to breed and sell Saint Bernards, starting in the
go-go city of Chongqing, but he is profoundly ill-suited to doing business in
China. His new Danish investor seems even sillier, but his guileless blundering
might be slightly more effective, but only slightly, in madcap documentarian
Mads Brügger’s narrative feature debut, The
Saint Bernard Syndicate, which screens during the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.
Even
though Rasmus Bruun attended one of Denmark’s most prestigious prep schools, he
has worked crummy retail jobs all his adult life. Even though Jorgensen attended
the same school, he has squandered his father’s patience with one failed
investment scheme after another. When they reconnect at a reunion, Bruun is
skeptical of Jorgensen’s pitch, but when he is shockingly diagnosed with ALS
(Lou Gehrig’s Disease), he decides to take a chance and live a little in China.
Of course, he does not have the kind of inheritance Jorgensen assumes, but it
will not matter if they can quickly line up a Chinese investor. Their ace in
the hole will be Dollar, a big slobbering Saint Bernard Jorgensen kidnaps from
his father.
Needless
to say, the ins and outs of Chinese co-ventures are trickier than Jorgensen
assumed. He also resents Bruun’s determination to be an active participate in
all stages of the process, especially when potential investors keep assuming he
is the primary boss. Yet, when things really get dicey, they will have to rely
on each other.
Given
Brügger’s track record as a New Journalist provocateur, it is impossible to watch
Syndicate and not wonder what it
could have been if he had made it as documentary, in the style of The Ambassador, especially since selling
Saint Bernard dogs in China should be considerably less dangerous than trying
to smuggle diamonds out of the Central African Republic using dodgy diplomatic
credentials (but this is Xi-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed Jinping’s China, so maybe you
never know for sure).
The
attitude is still unmistakable subversive and intended to foster free-thinking.
It is safe to say Chinese joint-ventures do not look like such a swell idea
after watching Syndicate. You can
also see a kinship between the real-life comedy team of Bruun and Jorgensen
with Simon Jul Jorgensen and Jacob Nossell, who joined Brügger in North Korea
for the propaganda expose Red Chapel, and
Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen, the duo responsible for the Klown franchise.
Bruun
and Jorgensen adroitly play off each other, developing some intriguingly ambiguous
chemistry. Li Boyang is also a charismatic good sport as their loyal Chinese
assistant, Beyond. However, Odessa totally steals the show as Dollar, which should
come as no surprise.
Brügger
vividly captures the big, intimidating nature of Mainland mega-cities. This would
be a hard place to be scuffling, especially if you had accrued a lot of bad
karma. Just ask Jorgensen. Syndicate
is funny and sad in way that are quite perceptive. It is a good, solid film,
but fans will really want to see another Mad Mads Brügger docu-provocation.
Recommended as the smart, honest work of cinema that it is, The Saint Bernard Syndicate screens
again tonight (4/25), as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.