One week after “Citizen Vigilante” debuted on streamers and in theaters, Elon Musk posted the German-banned film on X for a limited 48-hour run, while director Uwe Boll also shared it. The film stars Armie Hammer as an American businessman who targets rapists,
Elon Musk clicked play on “Citizen Vigilante” on X, posting the German-banned Armie Hammer film in a limited 48-hour window one week after it arrived on streamers and in theaters.
Musk shared the movie on Thursday, accompanying it with a video where he framed the moment like a timed offer. “Here it is. It’s Uwe Boll, director from Citizen Vigilante. The hour’s up, the movie’s now available on X for 48 hours. Enjoy,” Musk said.
Director Uwe Boll also shared the film on the same platform.
In the movie, Hammer plays an American businessman who goes after rapists, violent criminals, and judges—before he himself becomes a wanted man.
Germany banned the film due to extreme violence and a perceived anti-immigrant message, an allegation Boll denied. Boll said Germany refused to rate the movie, forcing viewers to seek ways around the ban. “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 Telegraph.
He added that he believed the decision was intentional censorship. “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 6-2 vote as I was told that the film was inciting violence against migrants.”
Boll has also tied the film’s inspiration to a case from 2016 in Hamburg, when a group of teens raped a 14-year-old girl and left her for dead.
Speaking about how the case was covered. Boll told the outlet. “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 outlet of the case. “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.”.
For Hammer, the streaming push lands as an uneven return to the industry after a major career rupture. The film represents a major step back for an actor whose trajectory shifted abruptly in 2021, when multiple women came forward with allegations involving rape and sexual and emotional abuse.
Hammer denied all the allegations, saying he only engaged in consensual BDSM and emotional abuse. No criminal charges were filed after an LAPD investigation into the claims.
Still, the allegations did not vanish from Hollywood’s decision-making. Hammer was dropped from a number of projects and became a post-#MeToo pariah, later starring in just one film shot after 2021—last year’s “Frontier Crucible.”
Elon Musk Armie Hammer Citizen Vigilante Uwe Boll X streaming German ban censorship Hamburg case Frontier Crucible