In the absurdist comedy Red Chapel, Mads Brügger conned his way into North Korea. Now he raises the stakes in this satirical romp through an Africa where everything can be bought and sold, a continent that remains a pillager’s heaven. Flying into the “lawless” Central African Republic—which he calls the “appendix” to the Congo’s heart of darkness—Brügger passes himself off as a Liberian diplomat. He then proceeds to mix business and statesmanship in bewildering ways. In 97 hysterically, harrowingly amoral minutes, Brügger buddies up to sketchy conspirators, assisted by a local fixer and a European secretary. While more typical documentary investigations of corruption prove to be earnest at best, Brügger’s razor-sharp wit slices a new, blackly comic path through the little-understood underworld of international affairs. “As they say in diplomacy,” Brügger remarks, “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” (PS)