South of the Border

First published on 29 Jul 2010. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

In an interview at Cannes, Stone said he hoped viewers would keep an open mind about Hugo Chávez, but if there’s one thing South of the Border demonstrates conclusively, it’s that Stone’s mind was made up before he boarded the plane. The most charitable way to look at this documentary-in which the director tours South America and lobs softball questions at half a dozen national leaders for what appears to be an afternoon each - is as a straightforward, uncomplicated corrective to the shrill propaganda of Fox News. A real corrective might have upped the sophistication level - Stone makes a convincing case for Chávez’s teddy-bear side, but is he really not even going to ask him about Ahmadinejad or accusations of suppressing dissent? - but sophistication is not a stock in trade for the man who made Natural Born Killers.

Stone’s broadly provocative argument is that the last decade’s wave of populism in South America is actually closer to true democracy than what we have, where corporate interests dominate political decisions. (His sole serious line of questioning involves how much each country owes to the IMF.) It’s a proposition well worth considering during indulgent cutaways to Stone munching on coca leaves, listening to Bolivia’s Evo Morales regale him with Wiki-facts. South of the Border is far more fascinating for its filmmaker’s personality than for anything it reveals. Ben Kenigsberg