Influence | South African Film Festival

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https://saff.org.au/

Date Reviewed: 12/05/2021

“An influencer is simply someone who has influence over others' buying decisions. In other words, it's someone who has the influence, the authority over or trust of, a certain group of people. In marketing parlance, an influencer is someone who causes others to make specific consumer decisions.”  (commpro.biz)

Influence is a documentary that tackles the late Tim Bell's unscrupulous political PR career. It details Bells’ spin and involvement in helping Margaret Thatcher’s Tory Party election victory via pointed, clever “Labour’s not working” sloganeering (if that is the right word) and progresses to Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq, plus further references to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and its role in victories for Brexit and Donald Trump.

The second half of the documentary delves into Bell Pottinger’s dealings in South Africa. A highlight is left-wing investigative journalist Marianne Thamm’s investigation into South African president F.W. de Klerk — who enlisted Bell’s help in his losing campaign against Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress in the country’s first democratic election in 1994 and finally the current opposition politician Phumzile van Damme, who claims to have been instrumental in bringing about Bell Pottinger’s 2017 downfall.

While this film ‘lifts the lid’ on the goings on of political campaigns and exposes many of them as being merely advertising campaigns, ultimately the film contains too much material.

Th effect of cramming in a lot of extra information weakens the impact of the film’s main message.

With a short running time of 90 minutes for this style of documentary and being so packed with material, Influence will be baffling for viewers that do not have a clear timeline already established in their minds. There are two solutions; either extend the running time and edit the footage to make a clearer narrative or cut the running time and simply the footage.

Influence is at times riveting, shocking and revealing, but confusing to follow. It ends with a comment from Marianne Thamm, who firmly believes “the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice.” Let’s pray she is right.

 Reviewed by Barry Hill