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Cold Case Hammarskjöld

Released Aug 16, 2019 2h 3m Documentary List
83% Tomatometer 70 Reviews 76% Audience Score Fewer than 50 Ratings
Danish director Mads Brügger and Swedish private investigator Göran Bjorkdahl are trying to solve the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjöld. As their investigation closes in, they discover a crime with even farther reaching consequences. Read More Read Less
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Cold Case Hammarskjöld

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Critics Consensus

As an investigation into a real-life tragedy, Cold Case Hammarskjöld might struggle with discipline -- but it remains an intriguing, entertaining jumble of ideas.

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Critics Reviews

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Scott Marks San Diego Reader In his own way, the ever-present director is as much a scene-hogger as Joaquin Phoenix with one glaring difference: Brügger's mercenaries are the real-deal, not heavy-handed, makeup-streaked clowns with mommy and daddy issues. Rated: 3/5 Jan 29, 2020 Full Review Daphne Merkin The New Republic It is impossible in this paranoid-making era to watch Cold Case and not be made to feel uneasy by the secrets it unlocks and the human aptitude for evil that it exposes. Sep 5, 2019 Full Review Adam Nayman The Ringer Cold Case Hammarskjöld's wild postulations about secret political assassinations and biologically engineered viruses have a gripping, gruesome urgency: Watching it is like getting sucked into a Reddit thread at 3 in the morning. Aug 23, 2019 Full Review Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Ultimately very sad: it indicts villains who are no longer present as an object lesson in how systemic evil can be eventually discovered but never corrected...I think Hammarskjöld is still news that should generate immediate further investigation... Jan 4, 2023 Full Review Ruben Peralta Rigaud Cocalecas This documentary goes beyond the death of [Dag Hammarskjöld], far beyond. We must take a stand, and we must do it now. [Full review in Spanish] Feb 25, 2020 Full Review Catherine Springer AwardsWatch The story is chock full of colorful characters (other than Brügger) and suspense, as Brügger builds the tale to a climax that turns out to be quite shattering. Rated: 3/4 Jan 25, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Holy Mary mother of God. There's a difference between having a suspicion that things like this happen and seeing how far reaching the global industrial complex can be and how evil. I am more distributed to be an American after watching this brilliant documentary than ever before. Not to spoil it for you because you should really watch it yourself, but there's more than one deep and disturbing "surprise". Amazing what they uncovered that was there to see all along but no one else asked. Watch it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Fascinating subject presented in a bland, jumbled way. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review William L Okay, I'm going to spoil the film's allegations here: former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, who perished in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances (factual so far), was actually the victim of an assassination by a covert group of internationally funded Apartheid-allied mercenaries who were also responsible for directly infecting African residents with AIDS in a kind of race war effort under cover of vaccination. Most of the physical evidence is pretty flimsy, relying instead on a few key witnesses, though the implications are substantial if verifiable. There are instances where potential evidence is disproven, and to their credit, the team fully admits their mistake in ascribing potential value to them. Brügger often comes off as a bit manic, which I suppose is justifiable, though there are a few directorial choices that might make you groan; at one point, Brügger ponders allegations that a card placed in Hammarskjöld's shirt color in the wreckage was an ace of spades, the death card, and then multiple times plays a clip of himself playing solitaire where every card is an ace of spades. Ugh. I think it's largely the rampant speculation (thinking out loud) and lack of hard evidence that keeps the film from feeling substantial. (2.5/5) Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/29/20 Full Review Audience Member Very disappointing. Movie about the movie-makers rather than the subject, and the frustration of which of their sources to believe (if any). So they found the wreckage (possibly) but never went to the trouble of getting permission to dig it up. That was the story, but they didn't do it. That is what real investigators would have done, but they were in love with themselves instead. Then they talked to a few people who would not talk to them or lied to them. Their final source, whom they seemed to believe, could so easily have been making everything up that they wanted to hear. Much of it was boring. I nearly fell asleep. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member Like all of Brugger's docs so far, refreshing and thought provoking. Wish I could buy on Blu-Ray. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review brent m This "documentary" investigating the death (i.e., likely assassination) of former UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in a mysterious 1961 plane crash shamelessly blurs the line between legitimate journalism and cheeky speculation, with consequences that extend far beyond the demise of one individual. What starts out seeming like a valid inquiry into a long-unsolved mystery regrettably degenerates into a questionable spectacle that doesn't seem to take its own purpose seriously, prompting viewers to ask, "So what's the point of all this?" While the film does uncover what could be a horrific untold story if definitively proven true, the credibility of the information underlying such a possibility is undercut by a filmmaker who could ultimately just be jagging everybody's chain -- and with material that's no joking matter. And the problem with that is, should viable evidence ever surface behind the truth of these incidents, it's likely to be discounted by the travesty depicted here. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Cold Case Hammarskjöld

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Danish director Mads Brügger and Swedish private investigator Göran Bjorkdahl are trying to solve the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjöld. As their investigation closes in, they discover a crime with even farther reaching consequences.
Director
Mads Brügger
Producer
Peter Engel, Andreas Rocksén, Bjarte Mørner Tveit
Screenwriter
Mads Brügger
Distributor
Magnolia Pictures
Production Co
Magnolia Pictures, Wingman Media, Piraya Film A/S
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 16, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 16, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA)
$105.0K
Runtime
2h 3m
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