At the latest when the head of government (Kate Winslet) appears in a Christmas revue, you should realize that the system is broken.
Foto: CHBO
As Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) rules a fictional small Central European country with a hard hand in the HBO series “The Regime”. Contradiction will not be tolerated. Her new adjutant Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts) soon feels this too, as he has to run ahead of the Chancellor through the gigantic, picturesque government palace with a hygrometer, a device for measuring air humidity, in order to report any increased values. Because Chancellor Vernham is terrified of mold.
But because Herbert Zubak misbehaves, his boss grabs him by the throat, chokes him and he is put on the night shift. Until he suddenly neutralizes an alleged assassin, is celebrated as a great hero and even becomes a close advisor to his head of government.
nd.Kompakt – our daily newsletter
Our daily newsletter nd.Compact brings order to the news madness. Every day you will receive an overview of the most exciting stories from the world editorial staff. Get your free subscription here.
“The Regime” tells of the sometimes completely absurd courtly intrigues of an illiberal democracy, which is ruled by an autocratic ruler who terrorizes everyone around her every day with her crazy peculiarities. Very similar to what many people perceived with Donald Trump, who was diagnosed remotely by numerous psychiatrists with various narcissistic disorders and even turned to the US Congress with a petition.
The politicians and employees around Chancellor Vernham are far from that. Everyone would rather duck away in this sometimes quite rowdy comedy series. With the Rasputin-like Zubak as an advisor, the situation becomes even worse. The country with an Alpine panorama, where sugar beets are mainly grown and the guards wear Eastern European-style parade uniforms, also has cobalt mines, which is why the major powers strive to maintain friendly relations and turn a benevolent blind eye to human rights violations.
Because labor disputes are being suppressed here in blood, while Chancellor Vernham is celebrating the anniversary of the takeover of power, on which the old regime of “Marxist thieves,” as it is called, was driven out of office in supposedly democratic elections. Meanwhile, the opposition leader Keplinger (Hugh Grant) is in prison.
“The Regime” by director Stephen Frears is a contemporary political satire that makes fun of the ever-increasing number of right-wing, illiberal and autocratic rulers of our time, of which there seem to be a few more every year.
Over a period of a year, the six-part series tells the story of this ever-escalating government prank, in which the country, which is slowly sliding into civil war, becomes increasingly isolated following an anti-Western discourse, while genetic testing supposedly proves that the Chancellor-whisperer Zubak directly descended from Charlemagne. Chancellor Vernham, who is played with devotion by Kate Winslet with a slightly drooping corner of her mouth and a lisp, continues to diligently visit the government palace’s own mausoleum, in which her father, the former head of government, lies in a glass coffin, like Lenin once did.
In general, this series offers a whole cornucopia of pop culture quotes and references when Chancellor Vernham sings on stage like Evita, although she sounds terrible when she walks through her rose garden like President Snow in the “Hunger Games” film series and even once Dress that could also belong to Disney Princess Elsa from “Frozen”.
This absolutely artificial, over-the-top, sometimes almost surreal parody sometimes oversteps the mark and becomes a little silly, but at the same time it is a successful satire on all kinds of autocratic systems. The cultural industry as a whole is warming up against Donald Trump in the year of the US presidential election campaign. There will soon be a historical series on Apple TV+ about the murder of Abraham Lincoln, in which an anti-racist America fights against a reactionary America. A film about the Trump-critical whistleblower Reality Winner has just been shown in cinemas in this country. Another film adaptation of the material recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will soon be released in US cinemas.
It remains to be seen what else will be set in motion in the film and series sector over the coming months to prevent Trump’s re-election. HBO is already doing a good job with “The Regime”.
Available on Sky
Subscribe to the “nd”
Being left is complicated.
We keep track!
With our digital promotional subscription you can read all issues of »nd« digitally (nd.App or nd.Epaper) for little money at home or on the go.
Subscribe now!