You are a country if you say you are

President Kevin Baugh of Molossia, still from How To Start Your Own Country by Jody Shapiro, 2010, 72 min

What makes a country a country? What makes a state a state? A nation a nation? And what’s to stop you from starting your own?

In a globe-hopping search for an answer to these fundamental but little understood questions of sovereignty, How To Start Your Own Country visits six micronations – unrecognized self-declared sovereign entities that you will not find on a political map.
Meet Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley of the Hutt River Province Principality, the second –largest nation on the continent of Australia; Salute President Kevin Baugh, the absolute ruler of the Republic of Molossia, entirely surrounded by the state of Nevada; say “buon giorno” to good folk of Seborga, a 1200-year-old principality which claims to have been included in Italy by mistake.

Through the lives and experiences of these micronational pioneers – whether farmer, artist, pirate or inventor -- the film lays bare the ephemeral nature of statehood while interviews with diplomats and experts in international law expose a revelation: there is no legal definition of a country in international jurisprudence. You are a country if you say you are.

But declaration does not guarantee recognition.

Along the way we learn of the exclusionary membership terms of the United Nations, the ultimate country club. We realize that the maps that shape our self-image as citizens are mere representations, the boundaries they delineate relative. Wherever you look in the world – from the high seas to forsaken desert -- there is someone with a different idea of what constitutes home. And an urge to put themselves literally on the map.
From the outback soil of the Hutt River Principality to the futuristic ocean cities of The Seasteading Institute, these visionaries are challenging the status quo, setting their own course and creating nations that you will not find in an atlas… at least not yet.
How To Start Your Own Country explores a concept most of us take for granted: the countries we call home. See the trailer here, read a review from the The Toronto International Film Festival after the jump.

MUSE: A Savage Cocktail (with a Dash of Bitters, Please)

Kudos all around for Massimo Salvato’s Muse, which keenly interposes the almost sepia-soaked world of earnest creativity with the LED-infused shock of the lean, mean and too clean new century that each of the two writers inhabit.

We see the story unfold with the three principal characters locked in the uncomfortable embrace of creative exploitation, resignation and cynicism.

Jules Mallory Skinner’s “Monty” is a reclusive poet spurred toward creative resusitation by Ludmilla (played erratically by Julia Krynke); a woman besotted with her role as the inspirational force behind two very different men. Equally obsessed is Richard Elfyn’s “Walter”(a personality best summed up by the description “wide lawn, narrow mind”).

It’s Elfyn who strikes the most plausible note here in his standout performance. His emotional directness sears as he stares unflinchingly into the camera – his gravel-tinged confessional a perfect complement to the oppressive psychological atmosphere.

Krynke’s “Ludmilla” seems more sterile than the piece requires – alternating a firm lock on her character with intermittent lapses, as the script also exposes bouts of incontinuity breaks in flow and style. There are however several instances of greater flavour added to the written pot.

Adam Harvey’s musical scoring shows admirable restraint, subtly supporting the entire paintbox of colour that Salvato brings to life in an understated surge at the film’s conclusion.

Muse seduces again with the weaving of darkness and light and turns their standard symbolism on its head in a reversal of value. The scene changes are arrestingly crisp and fresh and we are treated to a sumptuous visual feast of images; a snail crawls toward the high set keys of an old typewriter, a tank sits amidst the scrabble of a trodden field, an aerial view of divided farmland stretches out like
gauzy velvet before us.

All said, this is a high level offering. Fine editing and deft cinematography contribute toward making the viewer wish to see this long short expanded into a feature length (indeed it does strike one as a clip from a lengthier effort), as a desire to remain longer in the world that has been created.
One is ultimately left with a strong interest in seeing what will be up Massimo Salvato’s creative sleeve next.

-Angela Turk

MUSE by Massimo Salvato GB 2010 20 min | Screened in European Premiere at the 7th Berlin International Directors Lounge

Photo: Julia Murakami and Massimo Salvato at the 7th Berlin International Directors Lounge