The Final Year (2017)

THE FINAL YEAR  (2017)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Greg Barker
To make this documentary, Greg Barker and his film crew tracked Barack Obama's foreign-policy team through the last 12 months of Obama's presidency, from the White House to the United Nations, squalid refugee camps to elegant conference rooms, Paris to Hiroshima, Nigeria to Vietnam. The main players, besides the commander-in-chief, are Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Ambassador Samantha Power, speechwriter Ben Rhodes and National Security Advisor Susan Rice. To some extent, they're all idealists, dedicated to the notion that the long-term arc of history bends toward the world getting better, despite all the short-term evidence to the contrary. It's a challenge, especially in Syria, a humanitarian nightmare and a hopeless logistical mess, Obama's most conspicuous foreign-policy failure. They're not always right and they don't always succeed, but they know the stakes are too high to ever stop trying. By the end, they all look exhausted. When Donald Trump wins the 2016 election, they're visibly devastated - Rhodes, the speechwriter, is speechless - but even then they remain optimistic. As Power says, they're in for the long haul, convinced that the goal of a more liveable planet for everybody isn't just worth fighting for, it's achievable. Let's hope they're right about that.