In Cold Case Hammarskjöld, Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger probes into the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash in 1961, and speculates about a white supremacist organization whose goal was to spread HIV among black Africans.
The film raises the possibility that Hammarskjöld’s plane, which crashed in Northern Rhodesia, was actually shot down by Belgian-British mercenary pilot Jan van Risseghem.
After unsuccessful attempts to prove that theory, the docu switches focus to investigate the mysterious organization SAIMR named (South African Institute for Maritime Research). It relies on two new witnesses, who claim to have been involved. They confirm that SAIMR was a clandestine mercenary organization which served the interests of white supremacy in Africa. It ran operations to administer the HIV virus to black people in South Africa and Mozambique through cover-up clinics, with the goal of eradicating them.
Brügger and Björkdahl recover the second part of the autobiography of leader Maxwell, which confirms the involvement of SAIMR in the Hammarskjöld assassination. The first witness claims the playing card depicted in a photo of Hammarskjöld’s corpse is internal code for CIA involvement.
After winning top award at the 2019 Sundance Film Fest “World Cinema – Documentary,” the feature was released by Magnolia Pictures in August, but didn’t find appreciate audiences. Not did it stir any controversy or raised debate that would have had succeeded in renewed interest in the case.
