Democracy: the film that got behind the scenes of the European privacy debate

As nationalism sweeps Europe, a subtle cinematic triumph about an unlikely subject animates the hopes of transnational democracy

David Bernet hates carpets. Particularly sturdy, institutional carpets; "the ugly kind that last forever". But in his latest film, Democracy, the 49-year-old Swiss film-maker has spent five years treading the carpets of Brussels. He's been following a process with an uncertain ending, in an aesthetic he finds displeasing, to direct a wholly original film about the machinations of European law-making.

Democracy, opening this week in Germany, is a determinedly European film. It is also a subtle, human, optimistic, sensual portrayal of something that for most people couldn't be further from those descriptors: data-protection reform.