Flammen og Citronen

Dir: Ole Christian Madsen

'Flammen og Citronen' translates as 'The Flame and the Lemon'. This is a Danish film, about two resistance fighters, during the Second World War whose real names were Bent Fauerschou-Hviid and Jørgen Haagen Schmidt and the title refers to their code names. These near forgotten hero's of the Danish resistance started by fighting the Germans in a resistance group called Holger Dansker, but eventually became celebrated assassins, on the run and with a price on their heads. This is the point in their career at which the film begins. With the burden of guilt from multiple killings hanging on them and living with the paranoid angst of betrayal. I don't know how realistic the film is, since I have never heard of these two before the film was made. Denmark doesn't dwell on the past and the resistance isn't really spoken about. A lot of bad things happened under occupation, not least by Danes against Danes, and this is a theme of the film.

The film is slow paced, but has a steady feeling of fear lurking through out. The certainty's which are presented at the beginning of the film are gradually peeled away until finally one realises that one suspects every one of betrayal and then one is left with the sense of abject loneliness these two men faced. On this level, its an excellent film.

Unfortunately there is also an abundance of post modernism in the film with various characters questioning the validity of armed resistance with the two main characters often being halted in their tracks by victims questioning them and installing a sense of doubt. I don't know how realistic that is, or if its a plot device by a 21st century writer, but I suspect the latter. I know I was almost shouting at the screen, "Don't listen to him, just shoot the bastard!"
When you have to kill some one, I suspect listening to them begging is not a good idea and if you have doubts, then its probably better to not kill people...

The two main characters were well played. Citronen, who was the driver for most of the time was portrayed as a man slipping over the edge as the toll of the war wore him down. With his wife and daughter slipping away, and the realisation that he may have helped murder innocent people, Citronen gradually slides into a place where he finds (to his horror) his moral convictions no longer restrain him. Mads Mikkelsen was his usual brilliant self but he was matched by Thure Lindthardt as Flammen (the guy in the picture above).

Flammen is the shooter. The man who liquidiates collaborators with a near proffessional detachment, or so it seems. As the film moves through its various, and sometimes long drawn out scenes, we see doubt eating away at Flammen's convictions too and when the two find they have probably been betrayed, Flammen begins to lose himself. Love blinds him and the consequences are disastrous.

I'm glad this film was made. This was a story every Danish child should know.