Wel­come to Leith

“I‘m one of the most famous racists in the world” pro­claims white suprema­cist Chris Cobb, the sub­ject of this fas­ci­nat­ing doc­u­men­tary which chron­i­cles his attempt­ed takeover of a rur­al town in North Dako­ta. His plan is to build a com­mu­ni­ty of Nation­al Social­ists, but his inten­tions out­rage the town’s 24 res­i­dents, who quick­ly gain a tor­rent of out­side sup­port. What fol­lows is an unnerv­ing yet essen­tial exam­i­na­tion of con­tem­po­rary hate groups and of Amer­i­can ideals as Cobb’s pub­lic views on racial purifi­ca­tion pro­voke ques­tions regard­ing the mean­ing of the first amendment.

Cobb is by far the most intrigu­ing char­ac­ter in the film, his charis­ma, elo­quence and intel­li­gence all off­set­ting his dis­turbing­ly hate­ful opin­ions. Despite the clear incli­na­tion to side with the peo­ple of Lei­th, direc­tors Michael Beach Nicholas and Christo­pher K Walk­er remain com­mend­ably neu­tral in their approach. The duo present an impres­sive access to both sides but nev­er employ lead­ing ques­tions or nar­ra­tive hand-hold­ing to push a per­son­al agenda.

Of course, Cobb and his chief accom­plice Kynan Dut­ton don’t require con­dem­na­tion as they dis­cred­it­ing them­selves with their own vio­lent­ly big­ot­ed views, hypocrisy (in one stand-out clip Cobb is revealed as 14 per cent sub-Saha­ran African) and gun-tot­ting ter­ror­i­sa­tion of the local neigh­bour­hood. Still, ambi­gu­i­ty pre­vails as the towns­folk begin crude­ly mim­ic­k­ing the meth­ods of their ene­my, van­dal­is­ing prop­er­ty and ver­bal­ly abus­ing the new res­i­dents. In light of this, Cobb’s vicious respons­es could be a result of provo­ca­tion rather than vicious intent. Once he is impris­oned, the film’s inten­si­ty sags a lit­tle, los­ing momen­tum in the absence of his engag­ing yet dis­qui­et­ing presence.

On the plus side, Nicholas and Walk­er ensure that the film main­tains a visu­al ele­gance, cap­tur­ing the bar­ren beau­ty of the land­scape while instill­ing a pal­pa­ble ten­sion in a num­ber of thrilling moments. Observed, even-keeled and well-researched, Wel­come to Lei­th mas­ter­ful­ly employs an array of per­spec­tives and insight­ful news-clips, form­ing an urgent sto­ry which retains a cer­tain objec­tiv­i­ty on the offen­sive racist at its core.

The film leaves us with some vital ques­tions con­cern­ing the work­ings of dis­crim­i­na­tive organ­i­sa­tions. Should intol­er­ant views be met with an intol­er­ant reac­tion? Are a basic set of moral beliefs pre­req­ui­sites to par­tic­i­pa­tion in Amer­i­can ideals? Does the first amend­ment need amending?