THE PROVOCATEUR - DANIEL COHN-BENDIT

He is the "enfant terrible" of the German Green Party. He is showman, giver of impulses, intransigent thinker, someone that wants to distribute his political convictions amongst the people. Daniel Cohn–Bendit grew up in Paris as the child of German Jews. In the Paris Spring of '68 he, the sociology student, became one of the leaders of the student revolt. At that time pictures of "Dany le rouge" went through the international press and turned the eloquent political rebel abruptly into a media star. The red–head with the mischievous manner did not fulfil the picture of a small–minded revolutionary theorist. It fits that his motto was, rather than give up consumption, "luxury for everybody".

The 'sponti'–activist (spontis – in the 70s an extreme left wing political movement) Mr Cohn–Bendit changed effortlessly to the parliamentary side of politics. He supported the founding of the Green Party and became one of the main 'realo'–politicians (realos – 'real–life' oriented political movement of the Green Party) besides Joschka Fischer. After the change of the Red–Green coalition government, Mr Cohn–Bendit became honorary head of the department for multicultural affairs in Frankfurt. Since 1994 he is a member of the European Parliament. He keeps a hand in several committees and found a stage here for his always new ideas – his personal adventure playground.

Mr Cohn–Bendit is inexhaustible. He runs ahead regardless of possibly having to correct himself later on. He is someone who is first and foremost his own programme and that is: Change. Or, how historian Gerd Koenen ironically describes Mr Cohn–Bendits' maxim: "The movement is everything and the aim obscure". However, his engagement for the under–dogs, the people at the edge of society, the different, never changed. This has something to do with Mr Cohn–Bendits' own history. He is a crosser of frontiers, a foreigner, feeling neither German, nor French; a Jew without being involved in the Jewish religion.

The film tries to approach the person Daniel Cohn–Bendit in conversation with himself, various fellow travellers and contemporaries. It is a portrait about the politician and the human being, about his strengths and weaknesses, his inconsistency and his visions. Recent documentary material is mixed with extracts from the extensive archive material; pictures that not only document the life–story but also illuminate his personality.

A film by ARTE / WDR, 2005
45 min. documentary

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