« Ah, you mean the vagina? » – Diepresse.com

They show the most elegant version of Angela Merkel that you ever saw …

(Laughs) My chancellor wasn’t even clearly based on Merkel.

Well, come! Even the clothes – black trousers, red short jacket – was probably clearly Merkelesk.

This style of clothing, the pants suit, is a kind of uniform among politicians: but not inconspicuous.

For me, their performance was clear. You only waited for her most famous gesture (the interviewer puts together in the lack of the word Merkel-Raute in the English thumb and index finger of both hands).

Ah, you mean the vagina?

How come? The diamond is the international symbol of vagina! And for female leaders.

Ms. Merkel certainly didn’t know anything about that. But back to the film. How did director Guy Maddin, the two-time Oscar actress, convince you of so much absurd film jux? The politicians act more like immature teenagers than prudent political professionals.

My yes was somehow certain, before the call. It’s a bit like a first date: you already know whether you will have sex together or not. It’s like that! (laughs) Only then do I read the script. It was exciting, something really different.

Where did the crazy idea come from for a zombie apocalypse that takes place at the G7 summit?

Such a summit is a white canvas: you can only see friendly people who greet each other, sometimes even with their spouses, all smiling, even if they will explain the war straight away. With us it is fools who try to understand the world and put something important on paper that they can sell as great earnings. The ideas in the script were blatant, but in the end I always had to giggle and snap for air, even if I was slightly horrified.

The US President is least interested in politics, is often mentally absent. Is that just a gag – or is there some reality behind it?

If you are looking for too much meaning in this film, you will feel like you lose your mind. You are currently just angry when you try to get a rhyme on what is happening in our presence. Because it is completely incomprehensible and absurd as to which situations we have been as species. Or in which we volunteered.

If you meet Angela Merkel, what would you want to know from her?

First of all, I would ask you: « What did you want to say Trump on this famous photo? » You already know, the photo of the 2018 G7 summit, on which she leans on the arms on a table towards Trump, who sits on a chair with crossed arms. And all these men who duck behind her … This photo is now almost as iconic as « the last sacrament ».

Which other politicians would you like to spend an evening with a bottle of wine and talk about God and the world?

With Winston Churchill. The recent past has made many things relevant again, about which I would like to exchange ideas with him. For me, he is a contradictory, complex, controversial figure. So I would like to talk to him personally.

Where does politics reach their limits?

Well, it already has a little absurd that, like the G7 summit, people from a selected group of countries decide on the fate of the world. The absurdity of the situation in which we actually are actually located is huge. The situation is catastrophic: the challenges of anthropogenic climate change, the meeting with artificial intelligence, systemic inequality, fiscal and social – that is simply a large, confused chaos. You feel decoupled and disempowered. Only if you laugh together can you endure it.

In the film, politicians once explain unanimously: « The world is in a real crisis. And we are really concerned. » How much does it worry about the status quo in the world?

I am particularly bothered by the fact that there are still far too little unity on many topics. For, for example, climate change. Instead, we prefer to fly to Mars and deal with driverless cars. Why do we waste our time and energy for this shit, I wonder when our planet will fly around our ears soon?