COLD CASE HAMMARSKJOLD

By Mads BRÜGGER

DR SALES - as SALES All rights

Documentary - Completed 2019


Festivals
& Awards

BFI London FF 2019
Documentary Competition
    • Year of production
    • 2019
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • DENMARK
    • Languages
    • ENGLISH
    • Duration
    • 119 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Mads BRÜGGER
    • Synopsis
    • Cold Case Hammerskjöld
      “Dag Hammarskjold was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said, `when they killed him’.” Harry S. Truman, former U.S. President.

      It’s midnight. Rhodesia’s jungle is dressed in a steaming, reeking black. A propeller is heard in the distance, bearing down upon us. Many years later, stories are still told about Belgian mercenaries creeping around in the dark that night. In the plane is UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and his entourage of fifteen persons, and in a few seconds, they will not exist anymore. From this moment, you can draw a direct line to the Congolese civil war, Mobutu’s regime, the ongoing and accelerating exploitation of Africa and the total post-colonial nightmare as we know it today – all this due to the single incident taking place right now.

      In 1961, Secretary General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia. He was en route to ceasefire negotiations between non‐ combatant UN forces and troops from the breakaway state of Katanga. Hammarskjöld was both popular and controversial, taking a stance in the fight against colonialism in times of instability and the Cold War. What started as perhaps unlikely conspiracy theories involving conglomerates fighting for minerals and metal resources has evolved into a growing consensus that Hammarskjöld and 15 other people were shot down, inciting the UN to reopen the case on the suspicion of assassination. Notorius Director/Journalist Mads Brügger (The Red Chapel, The Ambassador) investigates the mysterious circumstances of the UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld’s, death.

      As the investigation closes in, we discover crimes far worse than killing the UN Secretary General.

      6 years in the making, Mads Brügger’s new documentary, has been selected in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

      Director Mads Brügger — Producer Peter Engel— Produced by Wingman Media in co-prod. with Piraya Film (Norway), Laika (Sweden), Associated Directors (Belgium) for DR, SVT, BBC & GEO Television in ass. with VPRO, NRK, YLE, Channel 8, VRT, RTBF, Against Gravity & RUV — Duration Feature & 3 x 1 hour