Justin Kurzel’s Neo-Nazi Thriller ‘The Order’ Debuts at Venice Film Festival With Lengthy Standing Ovation

The Venice Film Festival hosted the world premiere of Justin Kurzel’s new neo-Nazi crime thriller The Order on Saturday night on the Lido. The audience inside Palazzo del Cinema’s Sala Grande responded to the dark tale with a rapturous standing ovation for stars Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult.

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The applause went on more than seven minutes, during which time Law and Hoult embraced as well as clapped in the direction of the audience below to thank them for the reception.

The Order is inspired by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s 1989 non-fiction book The Silent Brotherhood: The Chilling Inside Story of America’s Violent, Anti-Government Militia Movement , which was originally published by the Free Press on Jan. 1, 1989, with a more recent edition introduced on July 14, 2018.

Per and official description, The Silent Brotherhood “attracted seemingly average citizens with their call for pride in race, family and religion and their mission to save white, Christian America from a communist conspiracy,” and was the most dangerous radical-right hate group since the Ku Klux Klan.

The film, adapted by Zach Baylin, follows an FBI investigation into a series of bank robberies and car heists in the Pacific Northwest. A lone FBI agent, Terry Husk (Jude Law), believes that the crimes are being committed by a group of dangerous domestic terrorists. Eventually, his investigation leads back to a white supremacist group centered on the charismatic leader Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult). Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett and Marc Maron round out the cast of the competition title.

Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult Went to a Dark Place to Explore American Racism in Neo-Nazi Crime Thriller 'The Order'

Prior to presenting their film on the Sala Grande big-screen, the team behind The Order faced the media for an afternoon press conference. Law addressed the links between the past and present. “Sadly, the relevance speaks for itself,” said the veteran star. “It felt like a piece of work that needed to be made now. It’s always interesting finding a piece from the past that has some relevant relationship to the present day.”

Added Hoult: “Hopefully the film, perhaps, if people see it, can shed more light on how these sorts of events occur and on the people that are instigating them, [and can] help prevent it happening anymore in the future.”

The Order is released by Vertical in the U.S. in December, and Amazon Prime Video is handling it in multiple territories internationally.

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