Is this the greatest true crime story never told? | Little White Lies

Trailers

Is this the great­est true crime sto­ry nev­er told?

10 Jun 2017

Words by Charlie Theobald

New doc­u­men­tary Out of Thin Air fea­tures a dou­ble mur­der case that’s stranger than fiction.

Every Ice­lander knows about this case.” So begins this strange and com­pelling doc­u­men­tary fea­ture from direc­tor Dylan Howitt, which arrives in the UK soon via the BBC’s Sto­ryville series.

In 1974 two men van­ished sev­er­al months apart. Back then, Ice­land was a tight knit com­mu­ni­ty of around 200,000 peo­ple. Every­one knew every­one, and this infa­mous case – which soon became a dou­ble mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion – shook the entire coun­try to its core.

Now this sen­sa­tion­al true crime sto­ry is being told in full for the first time. Out of Thin Air com­pris­es first-per­son tes­ti­mo­ny, archive footage, per­son­al diaries, false con­fes­sions, dra­mat­ic recon­struc­tion and wrong­ful con­vic­tions, the film sheds new light on one of the most shock­ing mis­car­riages of jus­tice ever wit­nessed in Europe.

Out of Thin Air pre­mieres in the UK on 14 August on BBC Four. Check out the atmos­pher­ic trail­er above and let us know your thoughts @LWLies

Two illustrated book covers depicting a smiling Black man wearing a hat and tie, with a city skyline in the background

You might like