Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult Get Venice Standing Ovation for "The Order"

Jude Law lit up the Lido with his powerful performance as an FBI agent fighting neo-Nazi terrorists in Justin Kurzel‘s timely crime thriller “The Order” that draw a seven-minute standing ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere.

Prior to the screening Law took selfies with screaming fans on the Palazzo del Cinema red carpet.

When the lights went up, Law was glowing as he and director Kurzel and co-stars Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, and Jurnee Smollett soaked up the rapturous seven-minute applause, which could have lasted longer had they not exited the theatre waving to the still cheering crowd.

Based on true events, the film is set in 1983 Idaho and sees a lone FBI agent follow a series of increasingly violent bank robberies and car heists, coming to realize that they’re the work of a group of dangerous domestic neo-Nazi terrorists, inspired by the radical leader Robert Jay Mathews, played by Hoult, that are plotting a war against the U.S. government.

“The Order,” which is an adaptation of the 1989 book “The Silent Brotherhood” by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, also stars Sheridan, Smollett, Alison Oliver, and Odessa Young.

Earlier in the day at the film’s press conference, Law spoke about the importance of the film at a time when far-right ideologies are rising again.

“Sadly, the relevance speaks for itself,” he said. “It felt like a piece of work that needed to be made now. It’s always interesting finding a piece from the past that has some relevant relationship to the present day.”

“On January 6, 2021, nooses were hung in front of the Capitol Building imitating a fictional insurrection from the 1970’s novel ‘The Turner Diaries,’ the first master plan for domestic terrorism in America,” is how Kurzel, in a statement, has underlined the film’s current relevance. 

The director calls “The Order” “a manhunt into the depths of that hate, a foreshadowing of a divided America, a warning shot of what has been and what may come.”

Law was previously in Venice for the TV  series “The Young Pope” in 2016, while Hoult has been attending the festival off and on since one of his first big screen roles, 2009’s “A Simple Man” alongside Colin Firth.

Vertical is set to release “The Order” in the U.S. in December, while Amazon Prime Video will distribute the feature in multiple international territories.