AL JAZEERA NETWORK - FINAL SCRIPT TEMPLATE
Strand Title: Witness |
Programme Number & Title: PG017030 / Vikings Versus Neo-Nazis |
Date of Transmission: TBC |
Script Version: |
Transmission date (known or approx): TBC |
Total Programme Duration (mins:secs): 25:03 |
Independent/Commission Producer: Nicholas Ahlmark |
Independent/Commission Producer Contact
Details: +447966184396 /
nick.ahlmark@me.com |
Commission/Independent Production Company and
Address: Storytime Films
Ltd, 1st Floor Flat, 36 Brunswick Road, Hove, BN3 1DH |
Al Jazeera Commissioning Executive: Emile Guertin |
Al Jazeera Commissioning Executive Contact
Details: Guertine@aljazeera.net |
Al Jazeera producer/program editor telephone
number: |
AL Jazeera bureau: KL |
Instructions: Please use colour-coding when
listing contributors and sourced footage. This will enable those elements
to be more easily compared and added to the PasC form. Narration – in CAPS Dialogue – in italics Correspondent to Camera, PTC – in plain text Names and references as they
appear in this transcript: |
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Time Code (10:00:00:00) |
Description of Scene |
Audio |
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TITLE CARD: KUNGALV,
SWEDEN |
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00:05 |
Robin in flat with son getting ready
for school. |
Son:
I don’t want to go to school. Robin:
Why not? |
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00:19 |
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Son:
Oh it’s raining! |
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00:24 |
Robin dropping son off at school. |
Robin:
I would describe myself as an ordinary guy
living an ordinary life here in Sweden. |
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00:25 |
Robin in car on way to work. Robin teaching in class. |
I’m
a single dad and a school teacher, but I’m also living another kind of
life... |
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00:55 |
FIRE TEXT: Every
weekend across Sweden, young men and women gather in remote locations to act
out the lives of their Viking ancestors in Live Action Roleplays, also known
as LARP’s. Drone shots of LARP village. |
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01:05 |
Drone shots of LARP village. |
Robin: The
Viking age, it has such special characteristics. We don’t have so much
writing all we have are the folktales and stories. It gets a bit mysterious,
exciting. |
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01:21 |
Robin walking through snow. |
There’s a lot of misconceptions
floating around about the Vikings. You might think about a big blonde tall
man with horns on his helmet and that’s actually very far from the real
picture of Vikings. |
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01:39 |
NAME CARD: ROBIN
LUNDIN MODERN
DAY VIKING Robin
eating food in dining room. |
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01:44 |
Viking warriors duelling watched by
Robin and crowd of Vikings. |
Robin: Of
course the Vikings were capable of violence as well, but the medieval ages
were very violent times, so compared to other cultures they weren’t more
violent than anyone else. |
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02:00 |
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Most Viking LARP’s are usually about
some big event like a feast or a holiday, maybe some gladiatorial battle.
Sort of like Game of Thrones but without the killings. |
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02:36 |
Night time: Robin and fellow Vikings
standing around fire watching funeral ceremony. |
Singer: This is my final resting place, this is my
final resting place. |
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02:44 |
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Robin: This particular LARP is about the
death of a young king and the politics surrounding his funeral. But we are
purely interested in the history and mythology of the Viking age and having
fun. We are not in any way a nationalistic movement at all. |
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03:01 |
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But I’ve noticed that as soon as I
talk about my interest in Viking culture, people become worried that you are
a racist or a Nazi. |
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03:34 |
Day time: Robin and group of Vikings
standing around in a circle. |
Robin: I
am part of the community ‘Vikings Against Racism’. We’ve noticed that many
Viking symbols are getting hijacked by extreme groups, in particular Nazis
and racists. So I have these info-merrcial flyers
about Vikings Against Racism. If you would like to please take these to hand
out. |
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03:59 |
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Blonde Woman: It’s
not only scary, it’s embarrassing that what I do is connected to this
(racism). I’m ashamed. It’s an embarrassment!
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04:13 |
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Long
Haired Man: You feel ashamed to wear the Hammer
of Thor. When I go to work or to school in my ‘modern’ clothes, I feel the
urge that I need to...hide the Hammer of Thor or whatever I might be wearing.
Just to not be embarrassed and be called a racist or a Nazi. |
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04:31 |
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Woman
with Shaved Head: You can’t see them right now but I have
many tattoos. Now I’m considering getting Viking tattoos but how will people
perceive me? |
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04:47 |
Robin at home in his kitchen on
laptop. |
Robin: Our main forum is on Facebook. |
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TITLE CARD: “VIKINGS AGAINST RACISM” |
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05:09 |
Archive footage of NRM conflict
with police. |
The Nordic Resistance Movement, NRM,
are a neo-facsist group. They believe in the supremacy of the northern
culture. Their main goal would be to prevent any other culture to enter into
the Nordic countries, according to their online propaganda videos. And the
arrow that they use for their logo is actually a run symbol from the viking
age. |
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05:37 |
TITLE CARD: FREDERICK
VEJDELAND NORDIC
RESISTANCE MOVEMENT Archive footage of NRM rally. |
Frederick: They
have opened up our country to an invasion of foreign peoples. They allow
Swedes to be murdered, gang-raped and humiliated! I want you to think about
all these things! |
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05:56 |
Drone footage of Kungalv. Robin
walking around his council estate. |
Robin: There was this guy Frederick
Vejdeland, he is the Nordic Resistance Movements propaganda person and he’s
actually from Kungalve, my town. |
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06:10 |
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I live here in Kungalv, not far from
Gothenburg. To me Kungalve is the perfect small town. It’s big enough to have
everything you need but it’s small enough to get some peace of mind. |
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06:25 |
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I live in Kulmarken, it’s one of the
more diverse areas in Kungalve. There’s a lot of different people coming from
all different backgrounds to me it’s my hometown. |
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06:49 |
Drone footage of school. Robin greeting kids as they enter
school. Robin dressed as Viking teaching in
class. |
Robin: I am a teacher at an elementary
school, where a lot of kids are first or second or third generation
immigrants. Once in a while I dress up as a Viking and teach the kids about
history and culture. For me it’s important that they know the viking world is
something inclusive, even if your background is from another part of the
world. |
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07:05 |
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Robin (to kids): I
have been reading a lot of research about Viking discoveries. Robin: We
have this fur hat. Student (off camera): Is
it real fur? Robin: Yes,
it’s made from real fur and it’s a Russian design. They had certain artefacts
that were important to their culture, for example a cow horn. |
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07:31 |
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Robin:
It was really in the 19th century that the nationalists started saying the
Vikings were this kind of Germanic master race. But all the modern research
says Vikings intermixed with a lot of different cultures, a lot of different
people from the Middle East and the Americas. So the Vikings were very
tolerant of other cultures and other people that they met. They didn’t adhere
to the concept of nationalism. |
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07:58 |
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Robin (to kids): When
the idea of nationalism was founded in the 1800’s, the Vikings came into focus.
Unfortunately they (politicians) didn’t care about what was true or false. |
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08:14 |
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‘A Viking, no he
looks way to nice with this helmet’ ‘Let’s add some
horns too’ ‘and let’s make
him very angry’ |
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08:30 |
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Student: Is
this why they have horns? Robin (to students) : Yes.
The Vikings never wore horns until they started lying about it in the 1800’s.
That’s why people today still think Vikings had horns but they never did. |
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08:46 |
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Robin:
These kids would be targets of the Nordic Resistance
Movement. |
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08:52 |
Kungalv
high street. |
NRM are targeting Kungalve because
there’s been an increase of unemployment, people are losing faith in the
system and there’s been an increase of people coming from afar, so it has a
clear scapegoat group to pit these people against. |
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09:12 |
Robin standing on hill overlooking
Kungalv. |
There are good people living here.
To me, who loves Kungalve, it’s hard to watch. So I’m really seriously
considering if I should try to meet the NRM face to face so I can confront
them about their use of Viking culture. |
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09:42 |
Night time: Robin apartment with
son. |
Son: Daddy? Robin: Yes? Son: I
want to take a bath. Robin: My
love, we don’t have time to take a bath now. It’s bedtime. |
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09:56 |
Night time: exteriors of Robins
council estate. |
Robin: I’ve
been thinking a lot about the security of me and my family. It is a risk. The
Nordic Resistance Movement is famous for harassing people, physically and on
social media, even hurting them and their families. |
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10:12 |
Night time: Robin apartment with
son. |
Robin (to son) : Oh
no, oh no I’ll have to drag this to the store tomorrow and replace it with a
new model. |
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10:33 |
Robin in living room with laptop. Archive news reports of John
Hron murder. |
Robin: Here
in Kungalve in 1995 there was a fourteen year old boy called John Hron who
was severely beaten, tortured and then murdered by Nazi’s because he was anti
racist. |
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10:50 |
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Local Politician: I would describe this as a senseless case of meaningless violence in
our society. |
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10:59 |
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John Hrons mother: John
was our son and we loved him. He was everything to us, we lived for him. |
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11:09 |
Robin in living room with laptop. |
Robin: This
murder was a big shock for everyone here in the region and so a teacher,
Christer Mattson started the tolerance project here in Kungalve |
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11:22 |
News archive footage of Christer
doing a talk on stage for school kids. |
Christer: They say it’s not economically beneficial to accept refugees and that
there are no ‘real’ refugees coming here! |
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11:29 |
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Robin:
It’s an outreach program to prevent young people from
joining radical groups, which grew and grew |
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11:
41 |
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Christer is regarded as a leading
academic on extremist right wing groups here in Scandinavia and he actively
works do de-radicalize neo-Nazis. |
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11:55 |
TITLE CARD: GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN Drone shot of Gothenburg
skyline. Robin walking down Gothenburg street. |
My hopes in meeting Christer is that
I can share some of my experiences and maybe hear some of his and I would
like some advice from him on how to approach and talk to the Nordic Resistance
Movement. |
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12:08 |
Robin & Christer meeting inside
building entrance. |
Robin: Hi
I’m Robin Christer: Christer,
welcome Robin: Thank
you it’s nice to be here. |
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12:18 |
Inside Christers office. |
Robin: Wonderful
to finally meet you. |
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12:25 |
TITLE CARD: CHRISTER MATTSSON ASSOCIATE PROF. GOTHENBURG
UNIVERSITY |
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12:27 |
Archive photo of Christer
debating with student. TITLE CARD: GOTLAND, 1996 |
Robin: You
have researched this for a long time but it all started early in your career,
right? Christer: It
was a talk I did about the (far right) Sweden Democrats. |
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12:37 |
Inside Christers office. |
Christer: A
student challenged me and it turned out he was a Sweden Democrat. It was a public debate in front of
other students and the media and I destroyed him in the debate. |
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12:51 |
Archive photo of Christer
debating with student. |
Christer: It wasn’t the Jews who killed people it wasn’t the Jews who created
the concentration camps it’s not the Jews who shave
their heads and attack people on the streets, you are the ones doing this! You can’t focus all your anger
on an ethnic group you know nothing about! You have to understand this, you
should be ashamed. |
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13:17 |
Archive photo of Christer
debating with student. |
Christer: He
lost the debate but not only that, it also lead to him being prosecuted for
hate speech. This was the first conviction for
hate speech in Sweden and he was sentenced in the Supreme Court. |
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13:40 |
Inside Christers office. |
Christer: In
one way, I did what was expected of me during the nineties… I accepted a debate with a racist
and I won that debate. The only problem was that this
became his radicalisation process. He became an active Nazi because of
this situation. |
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13:58 |
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Christer:
For me, this was a huge
lesson on what you should not do how
you shouldn’t act like a school teacher if you want to prevent
radicalisation. I
took the debate and won but I lost the student. |
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14:17 |
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Robin: Do
you have any tips on how to approach this kind of meeting? |
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14:25 |
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Christer: I
would start as I do when I interview people, by asking them ‘who are you?’ Because from this question you will
find the answer to many things and from there you will know which
route to take. |
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14:46 |
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Christer: So
now I am curious to find out more about you Robin. Who are you and why are you doing
this? |
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14:55 |
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Robin: I
feel I have to do something for myself but also for the sake of my family. I don’t want to sit here in thirty
years time when my son has grown up and he asks me ‘how could this
happen?’ and I shrug my shoulders and say ‘I
don’t know’ ‘I didn’t bother to take any
action’. |
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15:29 |
TITLE CARD: KUNGALV |
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15:36 |
Daytime exteriors of Kungalv and NRM
members. |
Robin: The
Nordic Resistance Movement claim to adhere to Viking culture and Viking
values and trying to protect them from outside influences... |
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15:50 |
Robin at his apartment reading
through history books, getting dressed as Viking, preparing to leave to go
confront NRM. |
...but the Vikings themselves never
had any such qualms. They travelled all over the world. There is so far only
evidence that they embraced other cultures and other points of view.
Embracing other cultures would be an anathema to a Nordic Resistance Movement
member because they are claiming they want to preserve a very specific, very
frozen in time version of Nordic heritage, which never existed. |
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16:36 |
Robin driving car down highway on
way to confront NRM. |
Robin:
We’re going to a meeting with the Nordic Resistance Movement. I
never had that direct contact, only through social media, with the NRM. On
social media I’ve had NRM supporters contacting me or commenting on something
that I’ve shared or something that I’ve written on social media and it
usually just boils down to ‘you are wrong, this is how it is’. The
conversation stops there. It’s
very easy to throw something out in that anonymous way and just leave it like
that. That’s why I believe in this face to face meeting instead. |
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17:09 |
Drone shot of highway bridge. Robin in car. |
Robin: Unfortunately,
most of my Viking friends live in Gothenburg so they couldn’t make it today.
So I’m doing this solo. I’m very nervous. Some people might
get violent. Yeah. |
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17:38 |
Robin arriving at NRM rally. |
Robin: And
the Police are here that’s good. |
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17:43 |
Robin watching NRM and counter
demonstrators. |
So
here we have the Nordic Resistance Movement having a small speech. Maybe
fifty people. So
here we have the counter demonstration. In Sweden it’s become a thing to turn
your back against the Nazis, to turn your back against everything that they
stand for. And I would say that there are more of us than them. That’s good. |
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18:21 |
Robin amongst counter demonstrators. |
Woman: So
you’re on the good side? I was afraid at first because I saw this… Robin: We
are working against the Nazis and racists so they don’t take our heritage. Woman: I
need to thank you, that’s so good. At first I was a bit afraid, ‘oh no’ I
thought. So your name is Robin? Good luck Robin! Robin: Thankyou. |
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18:41 |
Robin giving speech to counter
demonstrators. |
Robin: We
are a little organisation with an interest in history. We work to keep our
heritage open and accessible for everyone. So Nazi’s, racists and xenophobics
can’t take our symbols and heritage for propaganda. That is why I am here! |
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19:09 |
Robin watching NRM rally. |
Frederick: Mass
Immigration is a threat to our nation and multiculturalism is shattering our
country and creates chaos in our society. |
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19:20 |
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Robin: The
Nordic Resistance Movement is not being challenged with logical arguments,
with facts. I can understand that people get
angry and get afraid and just want them to go away. If I do not debate the NRM, if I do
not show other people their faults, they will get new recruits. We have to show that these people
don’t know what they’re talking about! |
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19:58 |
TITLE
CARD: FREDERICK VEJDELAND NORDIC RESISTANCE MOVEMENT |
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20:09 |
Robin approaching Fredrick. They both walk over to a different
area in front of an NRM member holding a flag. |
Robin: We
are a small network of history lovers as you can see we love the Viking age a
lot. I see you use the Tyr rune as a
symbol why have you specifically chosen that one? Frederick: Yeah
it represents Tyr of course, and Tyr represents justice, battle and war. |
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20:27 |
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In my opinion our culture is on the
verge of being completely destroyed we need to build up a new culture, a new
Nordic culture. So the Tyr rune is a part of that. It not only symbolises
combat and victory but also the Nordics. By that I mean us. |
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20:46 |
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Robin: I’d
like to know how you define the (Nordic) people? For example, I’ve lived my
whole life here in Sweden and so have my parents. Would I be part of these
people? Frederick: Yes
absolutely. Robin: How
is that defined? What is the criteria? |
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21:11 |
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Frederick: The
people are the Germanic tribes who came here ten thousand years ago. Robin: Research
says that the Vikings travelled very far and met many ethnically different
people. They went all the way to Constantinople and major parts of Asia and
over the ocean to Vinland, to America. We’ve found graves in Sweden which
tell us people settled here from far away, from all over the world. It didn’t
seem to be a problem back then... |
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21:47 |
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Frederick: Actually,
I think the inter breeding was negligible. Robin: The
ones who wouldn’t fit in and be deported where would they go? Frederick: They
came from somewhere… Robin: How
about someone who’s a third or fourth generation immigrant? Frederick: Yes Robin: They’ve
never been in that country and they have no connection to it. |
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22:05 |
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Frederick: We’ll
need to negotiate with the governments from those countries. If they can’t go
there maybe they could find another country with a similar culture. Robin: But
what if no one accepts these people who grew up in a Swedish culture? Frederick: We
will have to solve that. Robin: How
will we solve it? Frederick: No
matter what, they will have to leave the Nordics. That is our priority! |
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22:36 |
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Robin: Honestly
I can say that I was quite scared. I thought a lot about whether I should do
this or not but in the end I think I did the right thing, even if the
conversation I had with him sort of ended up hitting a brick wall. |
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22:55 |
Robin talking to group of NRM
members. |
After Fredeick, I heard that
somebody called out that they appreciated my clothing. So I turned around and
there was three or four guys standing there looking at me. |
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23:05 |
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NRM member: Nice
clothes Robin: Thank
you |
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23:08 |
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Robin: One
of the young men said, ‘Well, maybe we have our differences, but we have
something in common as well.’ The realization that there is
something in common, and we can talk about that. It made that connection
possible. They’re still human beings and if we
can see them like that and we can find something, anything, that connects us,
then we can build a bridge on that connection, and we can start to understand
each other and maybe they won’t feel so afraid and so angry. |
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23:50 |
Robin in car driving back home. Drone sunset shot of Kungalv. Robin’s car arriving at his council
estate at night. |
Robin: I
believe that Nazism, and racism in general, is founded on fear and hatred. So far I haven’t seen any part of
the world in any history books or in any era, where fear and hatred is
conquered by fear and hatred. |
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24:16 |
Robin
reading bedtime story to son inside sons bedroom. |
Robin: How
to become a Viking, these are the first steps… How to choose your name, a worthy
name is achieved by good acts. You are still young and carrying
your father’s name but soon you will create your own path in the world and
win your own name. |
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24:46 |
Robin exits sons bedroom walks into
kitchen. |
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24:55 |
Exterior nighttime shot of Kungalv. |
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25:03 |
THE END |
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