Cold Case Hjammarskjold: NZIFF Review

Cold Case Hjammarskjold: NZIFF Review

What starts off as a zany eccentric's investigation into a 58 year old cold case soon turns into one of the weirdest offerings of the New Zealand International Film Festival.

Doco maker Mads Brugger, who appeared at the festival in 2012 with The Ambassador, heads up Cold Case Hjammarskjold, his investigation into the death of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hjammarskjold.

For years, the death has been mired in a conspiracy theory that Hjammarskjold was assassinated, something which time and theories have multiplied.

It's into this wormhole that Brugger plunges, dragging his audience with him as he and fellow Scandi investigator Göran Björkdahl, see what they can find. But what they turn up swiftly shifts the film from a comic outing of degrees of madman zaniness into something which may be one of the biggest scandals of our lifetime.

That is, if it's true.

Part of Cold Case Hjammarskjold's thrill is a bit about indulging the crazy in all of us, but there's a noticeable shift when Brugger discovers something he'd never intended to - it's at this point the entire film flips and shifts on its own paradigm and makes you question what you've watched.

It may be 130 minutes long, but Cold Case Hjammarskjold hurtles along, partly due to the geniality of Brugger and the "Are you kidding me" content of what he's looking into. It's this which propels Cold Case Hjammarskjold along, because in parts, it's largely about indulging the conspiracy theorist among us all.

Not once does Brugger put his claims to anyone in some kind of authority, preferring us to draw our conclusions with only one side of the evidence submitted. It doesn't make it any the less fascinating, but it does reflect the times we live in, a kind of madcap world where one person's word is taken as gospel.

And while there are plenty of people indulging this gospel, Brugger's decision not to go elsewhere leaves a strange tinge in your throat - especially given his claims and what he apparently uncovers.

Simultaneously indulging the meta-side of investigative documentaries and also providing something that flips the genre, Cold Case Hjammarskjold is the most indefinable and singular film of the entire festival.