Citizen Vigilante, a new film where Armie Hammer stars as an American living in Europe who takes matters into his own hands by killing immigrant criminals and corrupt officials, has stirred controversy in the media and in Germany, where the film has effectively been banned.

The Details: Directed by German Uwe Boll, the movie was inspired by an incident in Hamburg in 2016 when a group of teenagers gang-raped a 14-year-old girl and abandoned her to freeze to death, but were let go without jail time. It was released on June 19 in the US but cannot be publicly screened in Boll's native Germany, as the film's rating body reportedly has not given it a classification. It is Armie Hammer's first major work in five years, following 2021 allegations of sexual misconduct.

Musk Intervenes: On June 25, Boll released the film on X for 48 hours, and CEO Elon Musk (Lean Right) posted the film to his personal page until Sunday. Musk's post received over 24 million views. The film has since received a global distribution deal, though it won't be shown in the United Kingdom, German-speaking territories, South Korea, or Taiwan.

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Recent Context: The film comes as violent and sexual crimes committed by immigrants have escalated tensions in several European countries, most recently, the United Kingdom. Last month, unrest broke out in Belfast after a Sudanese migrant attempted to behead a local man. Also last month, British MP Rupert Lowe released a privately funded report that accused British authorities of allowing the "repeated rape, gang rape, trafficking, torture, pregnancy," and "forced Islamic conversion" of "at the very least, 250,000 young white girls."

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Media Reactions: Newsweek (Center) prominently wrote in its news coverage that "the film has attracted support from right-wing commentators, who have praised it as a challenge to mainstream views on immigration, while critics have accused it of promoting anti-immigrant messaging and violence." Todd Gilchrist of Variety (Lean Left) described the film as "morally bankrupt." Rebecca Onion of Slate (Left) said it is "one of the most disturbing movies" she has seen recently. Onion said the film "hit the zeitgeist for X-posting right-wingers" but "doesn't quite do what those right-wingers want it to do." Alexander Larman of The Telegraph (Lean Right) interviewed Boll, who said, "In Europe at the moment, people are shying away from making this kind of harsh political movie, but I've always tried to smuggle politics into genre movies. This isn't a documentary, it's a thriller and I hope that viewers respond to it." Larman described the film as very controversial but said Boll's "candour is at least refreshing; it is impossible to imagine any other contemporary filmmaker speaking so freely and openly about the problems facing society."

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