Dialogpolisen / The Dialogue Police

They stand there in their yellow high-visibility vests when climate activists face off against angry car drivers. They act as a buffer between enraged believers and far-right politician Rasmus Paludan when he burns the Koran. And they make their presence known at large-scale political gatherings. Their job is to seek dialogue, try to mediate, and head off a potential escalation of tensions. The Dialogue Police is a specialised unit within the Swedish police and their mission is to protect freedom of opinion and assembly. The unit was founded in the wake of the riots at the 2001 EU Summit in Gothenburg. In this film, the men and women of the unit explain with seemingly unending patience what those basic rights, which apply to everyone, mean and why they must be protected. The documentary accompanies seven members of the dialogue police during their sometimes quiet, sometimes dangerous deployments and illustrates impressively how difficult and at time paradoxical the battle for a democratic society can be.