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Skinhead Attitude Switzerland/France/Germany

Two years ago trouble flared in Las Vegas when white neo-Nazi skinheads brutally murdered a local black skinhead belonging to an anti-racist group. This event perfectly sums up the violent and contradictory nature of the subculture and its pervasion of every country in the world.

This investigative documentary charts the course of the skinhead movement: its working class roots in the 60s and the long association with music from Ska to Oi! To be faithful to his aims, director Daniel Schweizer cannot flinch from the uglier criminal and xenophobic aspects of 'bovver boys'. Together with an examination of the positive outlook of French, UK and Canadian anti-racist Skins'and bands such as The Oppressed'The director turns his lens on US white supremacists and the particularly terrifying New Aryans of Scandinavia.

A chapter in the film is also reserved for the most notorious arm of the movement, Combat 18, frothing fans of the Third Reich (their name is derived from the first and eighth letters in the alphabet, 'a' and 'H', for Adolf Hitler), and their association with the band Skrewdriver and singer Ian Stuart, who formed the extreme right-wing White Noise faction. Chilling.

Please note: contains scenes that may offend some viewers

D Daniel Schweizer P Werner Schweizer WS F For Film L English, French w/English subtitles TD 35mm/Col/2003/90mins

Daniel Schweizer's films: Skinhead Attitude (MIFF 2004).