Exit: Leaving Extremism Behind
A film by Karen Winther
A former right-wing extremist explores why people join hate groups and what makes them decide to leave.
Norway/Germany/Sweden | 2018 | 85 minutes | Color | DVD | English/Norwegian/French/German/Danish | Subtitled | Order No. 191236 |
SYNOPSIS
EXIT is a personal and urgent look at the ways people legitimize hatred and the threats they face when they attempt to leave their radicalized worlds behind. Paralleling her own past as part of a violent right-wing organization with the experiences of other former extremists, filmmaker Karen Winther explores what makes someone join neo-Nazis, Jihadists or other hate groups, and what makes them decide to leave.
Winther introduces us to Angela from the US and Ingo and Manuel from Germany, all ex-right-wing extremists who made the leap to abandon their movement and now must live isolated lives in hiding. In Denmark, we witness the other side of the spectrum when former violent left-wing extremist Søren shares the story of his life. Winther also travels to France to meet a French former jihadist. Through these intimate conversations, Winther examines how and why some radicalized people, when confronted with the realisation that everything they once firmly believed is wrong, gather the courage to embark on extraordinary journeys to turn their lives around.
PRESS
"An immensely valuable work for anyone wanting to understand the mindset of extremism and the possibility of rehabilitation."
"EXIT includes that rarely seen perspective of women in a world and movement we largely associate with angry men. A sober look at an urgent and relevant topic, finding parallels between what is happening in Europe and U.S."
"One of the 15 essential documentaries of 2018"
"EXIT draws a complex and nuanced picture of extremism and the way out - daring to lay bare the grim face of violence."
"A kind of rough edged masterpiece. At a time when it seemed that the world was growing darker, the film reminded me that people can change and it provided a little light."
"This film excels in showing the humanity behind the extremism. The faults, the pain, the blind anger and how it’s easy to get involved with a group that simplifies those emotions into “us versus them."
SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS
- Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize, DOK Leipzig
- Young Eyes Film Award, DOK Leipzig
- Gedanken-Aufschluss Prize, DOK Leipzig
- DOK Leipzig
- Doc NYC
- UNAFF - United Nations Association Film Festival
- Love & Anarchy: Helsinki International Film Festival
- CPH:DOX
- Oslo Pix
- Dokufest IDF Prizren
- Nordisk Panorama Malmö
- International Documentary Festival Visioni dal mondo, Immagini dalla realtà
- Nordic Docs
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Karen Winther
Karen Winther was born in Norway in 1978 and graduated from the NFTS, National Film and Television School in 2012. Her first feature was her graduation film at NFTS, THE BETRAYAL, a personal film about her involvement in extremist groups in Norway in her teenage years. The film premiered at IDFA and received several awards. In her second feature EXIT, Karen continues to explore violent extremism from a personal angle and what can make extremists change. EXIT premiered at CPH DOX in 2018 and received a Special Mention at the Nordic Docs festival. (10/18)
RELATED LINKS
- C-REX: Center for Research on Extremism
-
Right Wing Watch
Dedicated to monitoring and exposing the activities and rhetoric of right-wing activists and organizations in order to expose their extreme agenda.
-
Southern Poverty Law Center
SPLC monitor’s hate groups and other extremists throughout the United States and exposes their activities to the public, the media and law enforcement.
- Stand Against White Supremacy Action Network
- The International Network for Hate Studies
-
Modern Times Review
An Extremist Self Portrait
-
Women and Hollywood
Interview with Director Karen Winther
-
Life After Hate
Life After Hate is dedicated to inspiring individuals to a place of compassion and forgiveness, for themselves and for all people.
-
TEDx
A Way Out From Violent Extremism | Robert Örell
-
The EXIT Working Group (RAN Exit)
European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network
- ExitUSA
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The film Ovarian Psycos rides along with the Ova’s, exploring the impact of the group’s activism, born of feminist ideals, Indigenous understanding and an urban/hood mentality, on neighborhood women and communities as they confront injustice, racism, and violence, and take back their streets one ride at a time.
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Four Wives – One Man
From Nahid Persson, the filmmaker of the award-winning Prostitution Behind the Veil, comes an intimate portrait of a polygamist family in a rural Iranian village. Persson reveals the intricacies of the relationships between the four wives, their husband, their astoundingly free-spoken mother-in-law and their numerous children. Sometimes humorous and often heartbreaking, this film follows the daily lives of the wives whose situation has turned them into both bitter rivals and co-conspirators against their abusive husband.
Persson’s camera unobtrusively and beautifully captures the range of the family’s interactions – from peaceful, pastoral scenes of a family picnic, to the temporary chaos caused by a broken faucet in the kitchen, to a furtive, whispered conversation between two wives about the latest beating. The women’s work – making bread, weaving carpets, milking and herding the sheep – provide the background to their frank conversations. Avoiding sensationalism and sentimentality, this film provides unique insights into the practice of polygamy and its effect on the women involved.
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