Killers of the Flower Moon, director Martin Scorsese’s latest film, opened on Friday, bringing to the big screen a true story about Native American travel, oil, the fledgling FBI and a series of mysterious crimes.

Thanks to a star-studded cast that includes two of Scorsese’s long-time collaborators, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, as well as actors such as Brendan Fraser, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons or John Lithgow, the film received a 9-minute standing ovation at the Cannes International Film Festival, prem whose era took place in May.

Killers of the flower moon this is Scorsese’s first feature film since then Irishmanwhich came out 4 years ago, and touches on many of the themes the 80-year-old American director has explored throughout his film career spanning 6 decades: power, greed, love and betrayal.

“A grim story that seems to have sprung up in the minds of Hollywood screenwriters,” AFP describes the film, noting that it is nevertheless based on the very real events documented in the documentary book. The Flower Moon Killers: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBIwritten by American journalist and author David Grann and published in 2017.

“In the 1920s, the richest people in the world per capita were the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage traveled in chauffeured cars, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed,” reads the Goodreads description of the book.

“We wanted to immerse the audience in that world,” Scorsese told USA Today, noting that filming took place in Oklahoma, where the murders took place, and that some of the buildings used in the feature film haven’t changed much. many in the last century.

Here’s the real story behind the movie, although be warned, it contains some “spoilers”:

Who are the Osage Indians?

Originally from the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys, the Osage Native American tribe was resettled against their will and settled in the late 19th century on the Oklahoma Rockies in the central United States. In 1906, as owners of the new reservation, the Osage negotiated a rare agreement with the US federal government that gave tribal members exclusive rights to any mineral resources found in the soil.

These rights could not be transferred or sold, but could only be inherited. However, prospectors soon discovered that the Osage Reservation lay beneath a vast oil field. With the black gold boom, the Osage became rich quickly.

In 1923 alone, the tribe received an amount equivalent to more than $400 million today, according to David Grann. This caused the envy of the white pioneers, who rushed to take advantage of this wealth.

They founded businesses, married tribesmen, when they were not just managing their own wealth, the US government declared the Osages “incompetent” in such matters in 1921 by a racist decree.

What was the “reign of terror” central theme of the movie Killers of Flower Moon?

From 1921 to 1925, there was a series of murders and suspicious deaths among the Osage residents, calling this period the “Reign of Terror.”

Molly Kyle Burkhart’s family was one of the hardest hit. Her sister, Anna Kyle Brown, was shot in the head in 1921, and their mother, Lizzie, died a few months later of suspected poisoning.

Rita Smith, another of Molly’s sisters, and her husband Bill die after a bomb explodes in their home in 1923. Their distant cousin, Henry Roane, was also found shot in the head that same year.

Molly Burkhart, a diabetic, narrowly escaped insulin poisoning. In total, the tribe has counted at least 60 victims during that period, according to its website, but there are likely to be more, with some suspicious deaths never being investigated.

As the bodies piled up, American authorities reopened the investigation in 1925, tasked with the Bureau of Investigation, an ancestor of the FBI. After months of investigation, an intra-family fraud was discovered.

The revelation of the mysterious crimes revealed terrible facts

One of Molly’s family members, a white settler, and his uncle, an influential white local resident, orchestrated the murder of her family in order to inherit the oil rights. Two men who tried to cover up their crimes were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1926 and 1929.

According to David Grann, other murders from this period that were not prosecuted due to lack of evidence were almost all attributed to people outside the tribe trying to seize the Osage’s oil rights.

In his book, he condemns “a series of large-scale crimes.”

And today? About a quarter of the oil production rights on the reservation are currently owned by non-Osage people. However, the Osage Nation is trying to pass federal legislation to be able to reclaim these titles, especially those that were obtained illegally. However, most of the deposit has been exhausted and the royalties are now only a few thousand dollars.

The murders of the 1920s left an indelible mark on the memory of the Osage community, which took an active part in the creation of Martin Scorsese’s film.

Sources: AFP, News.ro, others.