Jude Law said his new film that chronicles the terrorist actions of a white supremacist group still has “relevance”.

The Order sees two-time Oscar nominee Law portray an FBI agent who is investigating a hate group that perpetrated bank heists along with being accused of the June 1984 murder of Alan Berg, a Jewish talk-radio host in Denver.

Fellow British star Nicholas Hoult plays the Order’s leader Robert Mathews, who was killed in a 1984 fire during a Washington state shoot-out with federal agents.

The Talented Mr Ripley actor Law, 51, told a press conference at the Venice International Film Festival on Saturday: “Sadly, the relevance, I think, speaks for itself.

“What amazed me was the it was a story I hadn’t heard of before, and I thought (screenwriter) Zach (Baylin) did an amazing job of also highlighting family and and how community and a sense of family can make people feel safe and secure… no matter where they are going and in what direction in their life, politically or emotionally.

“It just felt also like a piece of work that needed to be made now. It’s always interesting looking back, but it’s always interesting finding a piece from the past that has some relative relationship to the present day.”

When asked about the far-right riots in the UK, The Great and Skins star Hoult said it was “an American story”, but he did see the “relevance today”, which is “sadly true”.

He added: “It’s also a global thing at the moment, which is just a horrible situation and hopefully the film, perhaps, if people see it shedding more light on how these sorts of events occur and the people that are instigating them, (they) can kind of help prevent it happening anymore in the future.

“In terms of the research, I had delve into a lot of horrible, dark stuff that wasn’t enjoyable.

“So (director) Justin (Kurzel) helped me a lot through that, Zach, and research, and I don’t really know what else to say about it, to be honest with you, apart from, it wasn’t very nice, and it was part of the job on this one.”

The Order is based on the 1989 book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt which covers how federal agents took on militias who express racist, as well as “antisemitic and neo-Nazi” views.