Mads Brügger, left, and Göran Björkdahl in Cold Case Hammarskjöld, a documentary that is deeply encapsulating but veers far into the conspiracy theory genre. Photo / Supplied
One question lingers throughout the two-hour runtime of Cold Case Hammarskjöld. It's not whether former United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in an unfortunate plane accident or was killed by international conspirators, it's the one posed by documentarian Mads Brügger near the beginning. Is this the greatest ever murder mystery
or the world's best conspiracy theory?
It's a hypothesis that can be applied to his film as much as it can to the case initially at its centre. Brügger's quest to learn what happened to Hammarskjöld begins with an attempt to uncover the plane's wreckage to learn if there is a chance his plane was shot down or sabotaged, while exploring some of the prominent theories about what may have happened.
Yet his style is far from straightforward. Recounting the events of his journey to two separate secretaries working on typewriters whilst he is dressed all in white, Brügger appears to be editing and musing about his work live on screen. He debates with his secretaries over the validity of the information he uncovers, disjointedly piecing together years of interviewing "liver-spotted white men" to try and find answers.
It becomes clear that the unusual narrative Brügger has deployed is because the case is far more complicated than anticipated, his self-aware narration raising doubts about the point of the film halfway through. The first half is peppered with moments of comedy as a result, Brügger keeping things light in a brazen attempt at maintaining interest.
He then unveils a twist that sends the story down a different path, revealing unsettling revelations that uses Hammarskjöld's death as a springboard to expose dark secrets from Africa's past - revelations that, if true, would make this one of the most impactful documentaries of the decade.
