I'd say that about the first hour of this movie is pretty boring. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why that is, but I found myself trying to stay awake for a long time. I'm glad I did, because once you get to a certain point where he basically talks about some of the flaws of the movie, the movie becomes a whole lot more interesting and entertaining. I would say the movie is worth seeing for the second half, but you really need to be prepared for the first half not being all that great, so it's still hard to actually recommend.
Cold Case Hammarskjöld
2019
Documentary / History
Cold Case Hammarskjöld
2019
Documentary / History
Plot summary
Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (currently Zambia), September 18th, 1961. Swedish Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary-General, mysteriously dies in a plane crash. Decades later, Danish journalist and filmmaker Mads Brügger and Swedish researcher Göran Björkdahl investigate the case looking for a definitive closure.
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Great second half, but then there's the first half
Cold Case: Apartheid
'Cold Case Hammarskjöld' is unlike any documentary I've seen. It's occasional deadpan humour in the first half flies in plane-crashing contrast to the chills, sadness and anger that eventually imploded me.
Did South Africa, with assistance from MI5, the domestic intelligence branch of the British Government, attempt to infect Africans with HIV via fake vaccinations?
That question grows as investigator Göran Bjorkdahl and documentarian Mads Brugger seek to discover who assassinated United Nations Secretary General Hammarskjold in 1961.
THE ASSASSINATION
United Nations (UN) Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld made a mistake. He believed that his actions had to match the noble goals the organisation had put on paper. Believing that every country should be able to control its own affairs, he did his best to assist African states that had been, or were about to become, emancipated from colonial powers.
The movie asserts that his moral efforts made him the enemy of corporations and countries such as Britain and the USA. He had to be killed.
The plane that carried him and 16 others crashed in Northern Rhodesia, now modern day Zambia, on 18 September 1961. I don't want to give away to too much of the story but the circumstances were extremely suspicious.
The motivation for the assassination isn't far-fetched in that the USA and Belgium were linked to the assassination of Congo Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba the year before. Prior to that, the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, tried to control the uranium in that area which was also the source for the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The war for the control of African economies remains to this day.
But was South Africa involved in Hammarskjöld's death? It appears so but that aspect becomes overshadowed by the other dark deeds of the shadowy organisation involved.
THE SINISTER SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR MARITIME RESEARCH
IT'S 1998 in South Africa. Just before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) comes to an end, it produces a document that's the plan for the assassination of Hammarskjöld. The protagonist is the South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR), a possible partnership between mercenaries and the intelligence services of South Africa, Britain and the USA.
It's leader, Keith Maxwell, who self-labelled himself as 'Commander', was allegedly at the crash site of the UN Secretary General's plane.
Flash forward 20-30 years and one of his projects has Maxwell pretending to be a doctor, opening clinics to service the black poor from the townships of South Africa. Circumstantial evidence points to his purpose being the infection of black people with HIV for the purpose of white supremacy. It's claimed that the main base of operations for this project was in Mozambique.
Science suggests that their attempts would've been unsuccessful but the fact they they tried, possibly with assistance from Western democracies, is sufficient to goosebump me inside.
The lack of ethics isn't so shocking as to be unbelievable. Around the same period, motivated by profit, drug companies and the British National Health Service treated hemophiliac patients with blood from the USA that they knew may be infected with HIV. Thousands of patients died as result.
Alexander Jones, a former soldier for SAIMR, is the biggest revelation. He left South Africa before the film's release. He has been reported to have been in contact with the United Nations. Impartial interrogation of Jones is essential.
YOUNG WOMEN ASSASSINATED?
An interesting sub-plot is the alleged murders of SAIMR research staff, as part of the cover-up. That included two beautiful, young ladies.
Debbie Campbell was recruited whilst still in High School. No one has found her. She's feared dead like Dagmar Feil.
Feil had intended becoming a whistleblower before she was stabbed to death in 1990. She knew she'd be killed, telling her brother, Karl Feil, a few weeks before. He claims that the police were unwilling to investigate. Understand how bizarre that was at the time - a pretty, white women murdered would normally have resulted in a frenzy of action and expectation.
'Commander' Maxwell appears to have been a textbook psychopath. The sole contrary fact is that, before he disappeared, he left notes about SAIMR with Dagmar's and Karl's mother. Did Maxwell feel guilty about Dagmar's murder or was he hoping that his legacy would be uncovered?
Karl claims that the TRC repeatedly refused to hear his mother, unwilling to investigate SAIMR. That reluctance continues, the ANC-led government of South Africa refusing to cooperate with new investigation by the United Nations. Britain has also been unhelpful.
Their reaction suggests conspiracy bigger than transitional periods such as Apartheid.
DISTURBING SOUTH AFRICAN PARTNERSHIPS
There are uncomfortable moments in South African history that appear to be companions to the documentary.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a sham. It never investigated the corporations that profited out of the slavery of black people. It left foreign sanction busters alone. Instead, the ANC allowed those companies to relocate their criminal profits to London.
For example, the ANC were supposed to be the enemies of the racist National Party Government yet appear to have been its financial partners. The ANC allowed National Party leaders to remove R30-billion from the country via an operation called Project Spear. Essentially, South Africa's gold supply was stolen.
As late as 2012, during the reign of Jacob Zuma whom many incorrectly perceived as the defender against capitalism, state broadcaster, the SABC, stopped a documentary about Project Spear from being broadcast.
Ex-Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and ex-South African Reserve Bank Manager Tito Mboweni have been accused of cover-up. And the Reserve Bank, one of the world's few that are privately owned, has refused independent audit.
The first significant action by Cyril Ramaphosa, when he became interim President in 2018, was to visit the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR is an organisation for corporations that many consider to be the the biggest unchecked power in the world.
Ramaphosa then made Mboweni the Finance Minister and Gordhan the State Enterprises Minister. They're currently viewed as his two biggest allies.
COLD CASE HAMMARSKJOLD
The initial jumpiness and offbeatness of 'Cold Case Hammarskjöld' may dissuade some viewers but if they continue watching they're guaranteed to become as absorbed as me.
It's one downfall is that it allows the perception that it uncovered everything itself. Reality is that author Susan William's book, 'Who Killed Hammarskjöld?', along with Göran Bjorkdahl's evidence, instigated the new United Nations investigation.
Nevertheless, the documentary is a 2019 highlight, and will linger long and disturbingly in the minds of South Africans whose country should stop hiding its past lest its future become as tainted.
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11 August 2019 - United Nations' Update - Raised expectations of progress as Judge submits final report to UN Secretary-General
Judge Mohamed Chande Othman, the 'eminent person' charged to implement UN General Assembly Resolution 71/260 (23 December 2016) has now submitted the final report in his 'Investigation into the conditions and circumstances resulting in the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld and of the members of the party accompanying him'. UN Secretary-General António Guterres will present the judge's report to the UN General Assembly later this year, together with his recommendations for further action.
This final report follows his earlier report (October 2017) in which he observed "Far from approaching the possible limit of our understanding, the deeper we have gone into the searches, the more relevant information has been found." Amongst recommendations in that report, he urged more cooperation from nine key countries, later extended to a further five countries (News Item 3 September 2018). The responses from these countries have differed greatly in their support although it is understood the Judge is content with the majority of these, having led to the discovery of important and useful information. Responses from some countries have been disappointing (News Item 3 December 2018).
Sweden continues to serve as lead nation in carrying through the implementation of the General Assembly's Resolution 71/260. In securing the successful passage of three votes in the General Assembly, it has skilfully coordinated more than one hundred UN Member States, ensuring the continuation of the Judge's investigations. Even so, its own protocols continue to hinder some requests for access to official Hammarskjöld-related documents on grounds that they are classified under national security laws (New York Times 4 August 2019). This follows its protracted correspondence with the families of those others who died in the plane crash.
In the UK, the Westminster United Nations Association, utilising the Freedom of Information Act, has pursued its request that the British government release information relating to the UN Secretary-General's request to the UK Government to appoint a high ranking and independent official to examine state records on the matter (News Item 4 May). Having received an unsatisfactory response to its follow-up request, it has referred the matter to the office of the independent Information Commissioner. On 5 August, the Commissioner confirmed that the reference was eligible for further consideration and would be 'carried forward as soon as possible'.
QUESTION
Is fair investigation possible? Or will facts be devolved into conspiracy theory becoming a Hollywood movie one day?
A powerful film that conveys an important and disturbing message
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.