Action thriller “Citizen Vigilante,” starring Armie Hammer, has been banned in Germany for its extreme violence and alleged anti-migrant message, according to director Uwe Boll. The film, billed as a modern-day riff on “Death Wish,” is being released in the U.S. on Friday by Quiver.
“The rating system refused to give us a rating [in Germany], so now you can only watch it if you bring in a Blu-ray from Austria or Switzerland,” Boll told the Daily Telegraph. “And I think they did that on purpose. It was a deliberate censorship decision. I hired a lawyer to complain about it, but we lost in a six-two vote as I was told that the film was inciting violence against migrants.”
Variety has reached out to Germany’s rating agency FSK for comment.
“Citizen Vigilante,” which begins with a mother being stabbed to death by migrant criminals in front of her son, features Hammer as Sanders, an ordinary man who is enraged by the breakdown of law and order and decides to deliver vigilante justice to criminals and the corrupt officials that protect them. His targets are mostly, but not exclusively, migrants.
“Citizen Vigilante” was inspired by a notorious case in Hamburg in 2016, when a group of teenagers gang-raped a 14-year-old girl and left her for dead, only for the perpetrators to walk free with suspended sentences.
“If you look at what happened in Hamburg, where the rapists walked free without any penalty, the coverage in the media was like ‘Oh, the poor perpetrators,’” Boll told the Telegraph. “It’s as if we’re living in a completely insane and absurd political environment, especially in Europe, where people have completely lost track. There is a huge difference between so-called ‘hate speech’ and stabbing people in the neck. But facts don’t matter anymore.”
“It’s absurd how I feel politically,” Boll added. “Now you’re being told that if you’re a conservative about anything — social, sexual, political — that you’re a Nazi. But this is how things stand at the moment. If you question anything — such as the hundreds of billions being pumped into Ukraine — then you’re either a friend of Putin or a Nazi or both.” When the Telegraph asked him if he was a Nazi, Boll laughed before answering: “I am not a Nazi!”
Speaking about the decision to cast Armie Hammer — who faced several accusations of sexual abuse in 2021 — in the lead role, Boll said it was “because he’s a great actor, and also because he was canceled and wanted to work.”
Boll continued, “He wasn’t charged with anything, there was no lawsuit. He was just a guy who was famous and fucking around. He’s a handsome, charismatic guy, who could be James Bond. In fact, he’d be perfect for the part.”
Boll has his eye on other actors who have fallen from grace. “Take Kevin Spacey, for instance. One of the best actors working today. I’d love to cast him in a strong male lead in one of my pictures, but by doing so, I can guarantee that the film would not get an American distributor,” the director said. “To me, that’s unfair. He won all the lawsuits and legal cases, and now he’s stuck in these very cheap exotic movies he’s making now. I think he should come back and get another shot.”
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