Home-Made Nations is a documentary about self-proclaimed countries - also known as micronations - produced by LOULOU PRODUCTIONS. Insight into the phenomenon is provided through portrays of the Užupis Republic, Royal Republic Ladonia, and the Kingdom of Hay, showing both its humorous and its profound features.
Micronations strongly relate to the current era of globalisation, as they are an example of how the whole world is within our reach and beyond our control at the same time. The humour involved does not necessarily preclude serious intentions, because many micronations express their refusal to be part of traditional societal systems by claiming to offer (inspiration for) alternatives.
Lonely Planet
The creation of Home-Made Nations was inspired by a small Lonely Planet travel guide titled: Micronations. The Lonely Planet guide to home-made nations. Funny about this book is that it is designed just like all Lonely Planet guides, making it seem like the dozens of small self-invented states described within it, are actual countries with actual possibilities of visiting. Further investigation confirmed that this is not always exactly the case. The question: when is a country accepted to be real? arose, characterized by a performative friction between fiction and reality.
''When you have a micronations the problem is that you have to make it in a way real. If you just say, we are a nation, how can it be recognised? It can, because you have a flag, and a national anthem, a currency, stamps, a queen. And with that you can convince people, because if you have all these things, one can recognise that it must be a nation. There is some minimum of things you must have. If you don’t have them, then the point is, why call it a nation?''
This perfectly explains the importance of having at least a certain minimum of national icons. Most micronations select a couple of basic elements like a currency, stamps, a national anthem, passports, a flag, a capital, a national day and a constitution. National iconography serves as national branding by immediate recognition for the nation, which is undeniably connected to the tourist and heritage industry. Parts of a nations history or cultural practices are expressed through these symbols.