Biarritz (AFP)

She fought to promote "feminist diplomacy", was a member of the UN Security Council, played mediators between the United States and North Korea: "The Feminister" offers an intense portrait of the former Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström.

In 90 minutes, this film by Viktor Nordenskiöld presented at the Biarritz International Documentary Festival (Fipadoc), follows the social democratic leader from 2014 to 2018, from her first steps as head of Swedish diplomacy to the end of her first mandate.

Barely appointed to Foreign Affairs, she announces her intention to conduct a "feminist diplomacy", a formula that hits the bull's eye and attracts the attention of the international media.

"The Feminister" is the chronicle of this epic roller coaster. Because the Swedish minister, who left office last year for family reasons, will go through many crises such as when she initiates the recognition of Palestine as a state, or when she sharply criticizes Israel, which earns her accusations of anti-Semitism and death threats.

And when she denounces the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia head on, she plunges Sweden into a difficult showdown.

But during these episodes of great tension, the leader lets nothing show in public of her doubts and her emotions, which she does however let appear in the film.

Whether you are an admirer or a critic of diplomacy like Wallström, the documentary, already broadcast in Sweden and which has won over several festivals around the world, turns out to be an exercise in transparency rarely practiced at this level of power.

- Behind the scenes -

To make this film, Viktor Nordenskiöld indeed benefited from an exceptional access, following the manager in her daily work, and he was able to film behind the scenes of the mediation that she led between North Korea and the States -United. Even if he was forced to stop the camera at certain key moments in these secret negotiations.

"There were limits [to what I could film], but I think that I was given everything that was possible, and sometimes even, I forgot that I was there," confided the director, in an interview with AFP.

"I was a little hesitant at first, but I did it for the sake of transparency", explains Margot Wallström, who also came to Fipadoc. In addition, "it's a matter of trust, you had no hidden intention," she said to the director.

If the documentary shows that her idea of ​​feminist and proactive diplomacy encountered many reservations, she judges the results of her positive action.

"If there was one thing to remember, it was the huge interest it aroused all over the world," said the former minister, who stressed that the main principles she defended (equality rights, better representation of women, and budgetary means to fulfill these objectives) have swarmed in diplomacy in Sweden as in other countries.

"These ideas are gaining ground" and producing "very concrete results", says the official, who says that she acted out of pragmatism and not out of ideology. "Why do you want feminist diplomacy? It is not a problem that concerns only women. It is because we know that where there are more women (in power, editor's note), the world is safer" .

A highlight of the film, and a source of personal pride, is Sweden's temporary seat on the UN Security Council, which crowns its efforts to put its country back at the center of the diplomatic chessboard.

But the satisfaction is short-lived. At the end of 2016, when Margot Wallström dreamed of a victory for Hillary Clinton, the election of Donald Trump showered his progressive hopes and opened a period of unprecedented instability in international relations.

"I think being a foreign minister has never been as difficult as it is today. (...) There are so many unexpected things happening every day," said the official. AFP the former head of Swedish diplomacy, who is now working on subjects such as disarmament, and the link between climate change and conflict.

© 2020 AFP