Frenchman takes own stab at Bush

PARIS – When Fahrenheit 9/11 was selected for the Cannes film festival, another documentary about George W. Bush was waiting in the wings in case Michael Moore’s film wasn’t ready in time. “The organizers were keen to include our film in the Official Selection but felt it was politically incorrect to have two anti-Bush documentaries at Cannes,” says Jean-Francois Lepetit, whose Flach Film produced Le Monde Selon Bush (The World According to Bush).

Directed by seasoned documentary maker William Karel, the 90-minute film could scarcely be more different to Moore’s pamphlet that went on to win the Palme d’Or. Karel’s style is sober, eschewing humor and stunts in favor of heavyweight interviews. Le Monde Selon Bush is a scathing attack on Bush’s first 1,000 days in power, and chronicles the first family’s alleged links with the oil and arms industries.Originally made for French pubcaster France 2, the documentary premiered on television last Friday, but in an unusual move will open theatrically in France on Wednesday. “We wanted to give the film a wider audience,” Lepetit explains.

Inspired by journalist-author Eric Laurent’s two books on the Bush administration, Le Monde Selon Bush is the fifth film by Karel examining American political power. The Tunisian-born Swiss director insists he “adores” America, but chose to make the film because “it’s a true story stranger than fiction.”

Spending more than eight months battling “the veil of secrecy” surrounding those in office, Karel managed 26 detailed interviews, with personalities including Secretary of State Colin Powell, neo-conservative Richard Perle, former CIA directors James Woosley and David Kay, writer Norman Mailer, academics and journalists. “I was amazed how willing some people were to be interviewed, straight after they had left government and were no longer bound by secrecy laws,” Karel says.

The €500,000 ($605,000) film covers many topics, including how the “Christian right Israeli lobby” has influenced U.S. policy in the Middle East and how the Sept. 11 attack gave a “clueless” Bush his raison d’etre — the “crusade” against terrorism, the “false pretext” under which the second war on Iraq was waged, and the “big lie” linking Saddam Hussein to Sept. 11. The film illustrates how George Bush Sr., first as vice president and then as president from 1988 to 1992, armed and financed Hussein. The Bush family’s alleged ties to the Bin Laden clan and Saudi Arabia are also examined.

Karel insists his film is not a French diatribe against America but rather a gathering of eyewitness accounts from Americans who lived through the times. “To think President Richard Nixon was impeached because of three tapes!” Karel exclaims. He hopes the film will be seen in the United States. “None of my films have made it to the U.S., but I’m hopeful that this one will,” he says.

Shiraz Sidhva – 24/06/2004