Mississippi, 1966. Vernon Dahmer, a prominent civil rights activist, is killed in an attack by racial extremists. With the unofficial approval of the FBI director, Black FBI agent Wayne teams up with Scarpa, a mafia hitman, to investigate the case. Based on the true story of the FBI working with a mobster as an informant, the film is set against an era of pervasive racism and centers on the somewhat absurd pairing of a Black agent and a white mafioso, while shrewdly layering the contemporary political landscape over it. How close—or how far apart—are conviction, violence, and politics? How can we tell what is justified and what is not? By Any Means charges fiercely forward, seeking to become both a question and an answer to these dilemmas. In particular, the casting of Mark Wahlberg is both a commercial decision and a political gesture.
Elegance Bratton is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. He won the Truer Than Fiction Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards for his documentary Pier Kids (2019). His autobiographical feature debut, The Inspection (2022), was chosen as the opening film for the Discovery section at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2023, he was named one of Variety’s "10 Directors to Watch." By Any Means is his second feature film.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
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