Cold Case Hammarskjöld

The first half of this documentary reads as a kind of sly, long con in which the film maker has somehow managed to get funding for a multi-year, multi location field trip. He can't believe his luck and starts off thinking much of the initial story is some kind of elaborate hoax.

Much to his surprise as he and the other investigator quite literally dig deeper they are rewarded by a much bigger story that is actually quite shocking.

However we can't quite be sure if the super witnesses are the real thing or actors playing a part. The secondary story seems to me to be the quite serious and deserving of a follow up.

The initial story around the death of the UN's Secretary general at the time does give us more context and that part of the story has quite rightly attracted a number of headline stories.

The secondary tall tales seem quite feasible but the tone of the overall expedition / documentary seem more mockumentary like. The format seems il suited to the secondary and more mysterious context and politics.

This is very much like that moment in Jaws where the character says - "we're gonna need a bigger boat" but he does recognise this but only in an oblique way.

This discordant contrast between the jokey tone of the initial story and the wider context makes it hard to know what it is that we have just seen. At times the style is very meta with Mads Brügger ( director & one of the investigators) unsure what to do with all of the revelations.

I personally hope that some other journalists or investigators follow up on this. If the director gets to film a part 2 I'm up for it.

Seasoned Danish jinvestigative journalist Mads Brugger has the soul of a cultural anthropologist, as 'Cold Case Hammerskjold'bears witness. Accompanying Swedish private investigator Goran Bjorkdahl, in whose possession is a 'bullet' riden metal plate he suspects belonged to the airplane in which UN Secretary General Dag Hammerskjold was shot down and died. Brugger's documentary is an exercise in re-engaggin with the past to elucidate the events and leads pointing to Hammerskjold's death on 18 September 1961, as he going to meet Moise Tchombe leader of the copper and mineral rich province of the newly independent Congo (ex Belge), in Northern Rhodesia (today Zambi To me, then a schoolboy in Africa, the documentary conjures up vivid memory of the heady days of decolonization and dashed hopes from the grips of colonial powers. For we never doubted that the black hand of the US, UK, Belgium and South Africa had something to Hammerksjold's demise, directly or through its hired hands or secret ops. The assassination of Hammerskjold is story synonymous with villainy. Bjorkdahl's investigation of this cold case is ongoing in the Congo.Brugger's script is dissection of a cultural and political ethos that breaks down a complex picture in to manageable and credible detail, for a wider lens of the killing of a UN secretary general. Hammerskjold the man's 'Markings', a best seller, is replete with hope and poetry, but he had a cold eye for the darkness in the heart of men. He had high hopes that once liberated from the shackles of colonialism, the newly independent could purpose freely the interests of their country and people. This conceit was an anathema for colonial powers who reluctantly let their colonies one by one go, peacefully or through war. In other words, Hammerskjold was a dangerous man who had to be stopped. Brugger, ably assisted by Bjorkdahl, tries to role play, even to thee point of wearing white clothing, to appear like the head of the South African 'Commander' who leader a secret mercenary entity--the South African Institute of Maritime Research. SAIMR engaged in endless bag of bag, inimical tricks. Like underground runner roots, SAIMR engaged in assassination, guerilla warfare, biological and medical tricks, including suspicion of spreading HIV among black Africans to eradicate them. The pair discover the name of the Belgium who shot down Hammerskjold, the role of the CIA, British MI6 and South African secret services whose SAIRM may have been an arm of the British black arts. AS such, even some evidenc presented to SA's Truth and Reconciliation panel proved too hot to consider, hence in the case of SAIRM biologist Daphne Friel's murder, was soundly ignored. Brugger and Bjorkdhaal did something obvious: they interviewed Zambian blacks who had memories of Hamerskjold plane shot down. Something which the powers that be ignored, as they had had when their colonized subjects were once chose to ignore or see or hear, less than human they! And Brugger unravels his approach bu hiring two black secretaries, whom he questions about his work and approach. Two women of intelligence who question serious his asssertions. And, moreover respects, a neat tour de force. After six years on the ground, Brugger wraps up his findings as Bjorkdhal like the will of the wisp tries to track down SAIMR's biologial in the interior of the Congo. This unusal film deerves to be seen and as the death of Hammerskjold discloses revisit a sad chapter in African history, and the refusal of the US and colonial Europe to cast aside their loss of identity as imeprialists.

I really looked forward to seeing this doc, first half was actually pretty dull even though the topic is interesting to me. Of course, I already knew about the "twist" and, sure enough, when we got to that part, the film got much better and more interesting.

But the format of the documentary copied Icarus too much for me not to have alarm bells going off as I watched it. It just seemed...too much...and yet not quite enough.

The revelation in the second half, if it were to be true, would be one of the most monstrous acts any group of people have committed on another since WWII.

But how reliable is the one "witness' to all this? With no additional evidence, just fragmentary clues pieced roughly together, I cannot say.

That's why the framing of the film itself leaves me suspicious.

While his reporting sometimes comes across as performance art, journalist Mads Brügger ("The Saint Bernard Syndicate") has gone beyond satire in his searing documentary Cold Case Hammarskjöld. Winner of the best directing award at Sundance, it is a powerful film that conveys an important and disturbing message about the extent of colonialism and racism in Africa. Described by Brügger as "a project of titanic proportions, full of doubts, questions and moments of desperation," the film is an inquiry into the death of United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, killed in a plane crash in 1961 in the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) on route to the Congo.

Willing to take on powerful interests in Europe who stood to gain economically from colonialism, the Secretary-General, known in Sweden as "the lord of peace," was attempting to negotiate a cease-fire between UN forces and the breakaway state of Katanga, widely considered a front for Belgian mining interests. The cause of the crash was attributed to pilot error but is considered by many to have been an assassination. The first part of the film deals with Brügger and Swedish private investigator Göran Björkdahl as they examine the circumstances surrounding the crash.

A cross between Michael Moore and Werner Herzog, Brügger tells us at the outset with tongue-in-cheek that Cold Case Hammarskjöld could either be "the world's biggest murder mystery or the world's most idiotic conspiracy theory" (though it may actually be a little of both). Separated into sections announced by yellow stickies plastered on the wall, Brügger dictates his story to two different Congolese secretaries who record it on a vintage typewriter. The two investigators initially discover from photographs that Hammarskjöld's bloodied corpse had a playing card: The ace of spades, wedged into his collar, which someone tells them is the calling card of the CIA, but that is the last we hear about it.

Ludicrously, Brügger and Björkdahl attempt to dig up the wreckage of the plane with supplies that include two shovels, a metal detector, pith helmets (a symbol of 19th century Western imperialism), and two cigars, ostensibly to celebrate after completing the job, though Björkdahl claims that he does not smoke. Brügger undertakes the project "dressed all in white like some fair bride," mimicking the appearance of a mysterious man from South Africa later deeply implicated in events. The diggers have to cut the enterprise short, however, because Brügger says that he feels nauseous but it soon dawns on us that we are being played.

The play turns deadly, however, when a man by the name of Keith Maxwell surfaces as the one who ordered Hammarskjöld's plane to be shot down by a Belgian mercenary. When a video from South Africa's post- Apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission is discovered, we hear about "Operation Celeste," a nine-page memo detailing plans for executing Hammarskjöld that may or may not be legitimate. On the memo's letterhead, however, is the name of the South African Institute of Maritime Research (SAIMR). Apparently, Maxwell (said by his wife to be insane) used the organization as a cover to carry out his clandestine mission.

During a period of six years, Brügger and Björkdahl interview former members of SAIMR to little benefit, but are eventually rewarded when they locate a surprisingly talkative witness, Alexander Jones, who claims that SAIMR was a mercenary group supported by the CIA and Britain's MI6. The story becomes even more chilling when Jones tells the investigators (without any evidence other than his word) that the goal of SAIMR was to eradicate black people in Africa by injecting them with the HIV virus. Though, in a New York Times article by Matt Apuzzo from January 27, 2019, we are told by scientists that this was not possible, the fact that some thought it was desirable is in itself deplorable.

In 2015, the UN reopened the Hammarskjöld investigation and a United Nations panel concluded that there was "persuasive evidence that Hammarskjöld's aircraft was subjected to some form of attack or threat." Given what we know about Western involvement in regime change such as the overthrow of Socialist President Miguel Allendé of Chile, Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, and Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala, Cold Case Hammarskjöld raises serious doubts about the official story. In discussing the film, Brügger said, "I want the audience to feel: I've never seen anything like this before!" My feelings exactly.

Swedish investigator Goran Bjorkdahl deserves great credit for uncovering and preserving a few new pieces of evidence in the Hammarskjold mystery. The subject matter of the investigation is important but this director's presentation is horrid.

Director and presenter Mads Brugger comes off as a self-important and meandering fool in the overly long and unfocused film. Edit out all of the scenes where Brugger is just taking up screen time and speed the pace of the other 60% of the film, and you could end up with a much tighter and more effective 60-80 minute film.

I hope documentarian Ravi Somaiya, who has written a compelling book on the same subject, will build upon this base and create something more worthy of this much viewing time.