New Delhi: Actor Armie Hammer’s Citizen Vigilante is to Europe what Dhurandhar was to India: a film that frames itself as a story about justice but is something more loaded.
On its surface, Citizen Vigilante, directed by German filmmaker Uwe Boll, is about hunting down immigrants with a supposed criminal past and exposing corrupt officials. Upon closer inspection, though, it is a one-dimensional representation of a racially charged European anxiety that maps onto Muslim immigrant communities specifically, rather than crime in general.
Whether intentional or not, the film is steeped in Europe’s current political sensibilities, one which represents far-Right fears about immigration disguised as mainstream entertainment.
The film stars Hammer as Sanders, a vigilante whom the public hails as a hero. Interpol chief Henry, played by Saw V (2008) actor Costas Mandylor, sees things differently, viewing Sanders as a danger to society.
Citizen Vigilante is said to be inspired by the 2016 case in Hamburg, where a 14-year-old girl was gang-raped by a group of migrants who avoided jail time after receiving suspended sentences. It is probably the only element of the film that can credibly claim to be fact-based. Boll has shot the film in Croatia, which was originally titled “The Dark Knight,” a name the makers had to drop since Warner Bros already holds the copyright for it.
Support from Musk
While critics and social media warriors remain divided on the film, it has found at least one high-profile fan in Tesla founder Elon Musk, who is known for his right-wing leanings.
Citizen Vigilante was banned in Germany, with regulators refusing it an age rating over fears its violent content could incite real-world violence against immigrants. However, Musk leaked the film on his X account on 25 June, which has over 240 million followers.
Though Musk’s link no longer works, the film continues to circulate online via reposts from other X users.
In a separate post, Musk wrote that the film was “what people want to see.”
Boll, for his part, also shared an AI-generated image of Hammer’s character standing over the body of a woman dressed as Supergirl.
Riding the wave of online attention, Boll announced a sequel is already in the works, re-posting a fan-made AI poster with the message: “Keep watching Citizen Vigilante and we can start shooting Part 2 soon.”
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Armie Hammer makes a comeback
The film also marks one of Hammer’s first indie projects since being dropped by his talent agency WME in 2021 amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Known for his dual role as the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network (2010) and his performance in Call Me by Your Name (2017), Hammer’s last big-screen outing was in 2023 in the Gal Gadot-starrer Death on the Nile.
Citizen Vigilante is one of the several low-budget independent films he has lined up as he attempts to rebuild a career that was derailed by the controversy around allegations of sexual assault and cannibalism against him.
Multiple women had leaked graphic social media messages allegedly sent by Hammer. These messages detailed extreme BDSM practices and dark fantasies, with the actor claiming in one text, as reported by Variety, “I’m 100 per cent a cannibal.”
Hammer has consistently denied the allegations. In 2023, Los Angeles prosecutors declined to file charges against him following a lengthy investigation.