Cold Case Hammarskjöld

Remarkable documentary in which director and enfant terrible Mads Brügger (The Ambassador) partners with private detective Göran Bjorkdahl in an attempt to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. Their search leads them to something much bigger than the murder of a UN secretary.

On the night of 16 September 1961, the plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld crashed under suspicious circumstances in the British colony of North Rhodesia. The Swedish-born diplomat Hammarskjöld was advocating Congo’s independence, which had made him very unpopular with the colonial superpowers in the West. The crash resulted in one of the most mysterious murder conspiracies in recent history.

Over fifty years after the fact, Danish filmmaker, journalist and provocateur Mads Brügger investigates this situation to uncover the truth about this cold case once and for all. Could Hammarskjöld have been murdered by powerful political adversaries? And who left the ‘death card’, the ace of spades, on his body? Dressed in a white safari uniform, the unconventional Brügger partners with Swedish private detective Göran Bjorkdahl to look for the remains of the aircraft, interview witnesses that had not been questioned before, and delve deep into the archives. However, the dynamic duo encounters intense resistance and many closed doors, ending up in a web of deception and deceit. And then the two of them uncover something that is much bigger than the murder of a UN secretary...