Dreaming of a dystopia

CINEMA WITHOUT BORDERS In this weekly column, the writer explores the non-Indian films that are making the right noises across the globe. This week, we talk about Justin Kurzel-The Order

- NAMRATA JOSHI

Individual opinions might differ on several counts over Justin Kurzel's The Order, but for two points of consensus: its eerie sense of timeliness and relevance in these hate-filled, polarizing times and a solid performance by an unrecognizable Jude Law. Law plays Terry Husk, a toughened, battle-scarred FBI agent, looking ragged, scraggy, and grizzled beyond his age. Estranged from his wife and daughters and having dealt with tough cases involving the Ku Klux Klan and the Italian-American mafia, he is hoping for a relatively comfortable and laid-back stint in Idaho. But that's easier wished for than bestowed. He has to take charge of the interrogation into the alarming surge in bombings, bank robberies, armored car loot, and counterfeiting, which leads him to a white supremacist militant group called The Order that is aiming to overthrow the US government and build a White American Bastion in the Pacific Northwest.

He soon has a new adversary in the leader of the militia, the neo-Nazi, hate-mongering, antisemite Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult). And an ally in his deputy Jamie Brown (Tye Sheridan).