Doc Star of the Month: Mads Brügger, ‘Cold Case Hammarskjöld’

Since I didn’t attend this year’s Sundance, I missed seeing Cold Case Hammarskjöld — the latest surreal offering from the Danish gonzo journalist/filmmaker/radio host/all-around provocateur Mads Brügger — at its debut back in January, when it won the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award. Which, like the film itself, turned out to be a bizarre blessing in disguise. Instead of braving the Park City crowds, I found myself, several months later, serenely watching the mesmerizing (and hilarious) doc — a through-the-looking-glass reexamination of the death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in a mysterious 1961 plane crash — in Copenhagen, at a private screening (yes, another lucky twist — just for me) while I was in town for CPH:DOX. (It’s good to have friends in Danish places.)

And my very first thought upon emerging from the Danish Film Institute’s cozy screening space? Mads Brügger, who’s made a career of putting himself in front of his own lens, would make one heck of a “Doc Star of the Month.” So in a final fortunate break, Documentary caught up with Brügger a week before the film’s August 16th theatrical premiere, through Magnolia Pictures, to get the scoop on this sleuthing tour de force.

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.