Documentary » Dokumentarac | 37 F R I DAY FOR T HE F U T UR E I amGreta and I want you to panic! This fantastic teenager and climate activist has received her own film, which follows her global crusade for change The Hulu documentary I Am Greta follows the extraordinary campaign of Greta unberg from the very beginning to the virtual peak, when she shook the world’s ecological conscience by arriving in New York in 2019 and giving a speech in front of the UN. She previously crossed the Atlantic using a completely “green” sailing boat, which was an astonishing achievement. However, along with the adoration of young people around the world, she’s also had to face an extraordinary amount of condescension and abuse from various reactionaries, including those in the greatest positions of power. And yet despite being a valuable reminder of unberg’s idealism and unselfconscious courage, the film doesn’t entirely work, writes e Guardian’s film critic Peter Bradshaw. For a start, he writes, film-maker NathanGrossman seems to have been alongside unberg andher father Svante unberg almost every stepof the way. But the resulting image is carefully curated, perhaps becauseGrossman ishobbledbyhis (understandable) reluctance tosayanything remotely critical or evenoff-topic, and give ammunition to Greta’s enemies. Intriguingly, evenbafflingly, Grossman’s filmbegins by showing unberg’s pre-famous self as a high-school pupil withher home-made climate strike placard, enduring a lonely vigil outside the Stockholmparliament every Fridaywitha fewgrumpy older shoppers comingup and telling her off for not being in school. Here she is: the non-famous nobody, and these scenes lead seamlessly to latermoments showingher campaign takingoff. So… does thismeanGrossmanhas beenprophetically following her career from the very beginning? Bradshawwonders. Grossmanhimself answered this question inan interview, explaining that he was friends with the future screenwriter of the film, who became interested in the girl who has been protesting from the very beginning. “I went to the place where she protested on a Friday. I didn’t even know what she looked like until then. We foundher and asked if we could set up amicrophone and film her. at’s how it started,” says the director. eGuardian’scritic furtherwonderswhathappened to her family? As he notes, there’s a lot about her horses and dogs, something about her Asperger’s condition... ere’s a bit about her dad, hardly anything about her mum, the singerMalenaErnman, who representedSweden in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009... Speaking about that inanother interview, thedirector says thather motherwasworking inStockholmat the time. Aslightly unconvincing explanation, but the film still has an emphasis on the goal of Greta’s whole story. It is interesting that this film, whichhad its premiere screening inVenice, appears just at the time of the COVID-19pandemic, which led, ironically, to amuch-desired drop in carbon emissions. However, the end of the pandemic will result in the climate crisis returning fully to the fore, so we need to already be thinking about that now. And thisdocumentarywill certainlyprovide itsown modest contribution to that. Mnogo godina su ljudi odbijali da me čuju, deca su bila zla prema meni. Ali nijemi bitno da budem popularna, bitnami je klimatska pravda, kažeGreta u filmu / For many years, people refused to listen tome. Children were verymean. But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice,” says Greta in the film
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