Hot Docs 2018: Golden Dawn Girls

In Golden Dawn Girls, director Håvard Bustnes offers up a no-nonsense approach to a growing phenomenon: the rise of nationalist politics. Bustnes’s focus is on the Greek party “The Golden Dawn”, which has grown to the third largest party in parliament over the past decade. When some of the most influential men in the party are imprisoned awaiting trial in response to their violence acts, the women behind the party – the “Golden Dawn Girls” – become the face of an ultra right-wing party that uses violence, intimidation, and acerbic rhetoric as its main forces for change.

Bustnes goes for a cinéma vérité presentation, mixing interviews with key members of The Golden Dawn with scenes where his camera is merely a fly-on-the-wall. His main subject is Ourania, daughter of the founder of The Golden Dawn and husband to one of its highest-ranking and most violence-prone members. He offers voice-over…