Gritty true-crime thriller starring Jude Law receives huge standing ovation at Venice Film Festival

A brand new gritty true-crime thriller, that saw Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult go to extreme lengths to uphold the film’s tension, received a near 10-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival .

The new film, titled The Order , is from Australian director Justin Kurzel, whose previous credits include Snowtown , True History of the Kelly Gang and the 2015 version of Macbeth starring Michael Fassbender. It follows premieres of other films including long-awaited sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Pablo Larraín’s Maria Callas biopic starring Angelina Jolie .

Law, who can next be seen as a no-holds-barred Henry VIII in Firebrand , stars in the film as an FBI agent investigating numerous bank robberies and car heists in the Pacific Northwest.

The case puts him on the trail of a white supremacist domestic terrorist organisation led by a ruthless character played by Hoult.

Both Law and Hoult did not speak to each other at all on the film’s set in order to maintain a tense rivalry on-screen – and it seems like this decision paid off, with reviews praising the pair’s respective performances.

Kurzel also revealed during a press conference that Law was instructed to tail Hoult for a day without him knowing this was happening. He succeeded.

Deadline reports Law as saying that the film’s “relevance sadly speaks for itself,” adding: “It felt like a piece of work that needed to be made now.”

Kurzel said: “I think we live at a time now that was reflected in the film, where there is division, and there’s a lot of conversation about the future and about ideologies. The film was about an ideology that’s incredibly dangerous and how it can quickly take seed… I think that’s a timeless thing, not only in America, but in Australia too.”

The film is based on Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s non-fiction book The Silent Brotherhood: The Chilling Inside Story of America’s Violent, Anti-Government Militia Movement . It’s being released in the US in December, with Prime Video overseeing the film’s international release.