THE FASCINATION of film- makers with the second World War continues unabated, triggering the narratives of four movies already released here this year ( The Reader, Defiance, Valkyrie, The Unborn) and more on the way.
Flame & Citroncasts light on the Danish resistance during the Nazi occupation of Copenhagen in 1944. Based on actual events, the film is the most expensive production to date from Denmark, where it was a major commercial success and proved controversial in its claims and revelations.
It takes its title from the codenames of two agent. Flame, so called because of his bright red hair and impressively played by Thure Lindhardt, is 23 and exterminates Nazi collaborators, striding fearlessly towards his targets and shooting them, often in broad daylight. Flame is as cold-blooded as the German troops who round up and execute suspects on the streets.
His driver, known as Citron (Mads Mikkelsen) is a sweaty, morose middle-aged man who has neglected his family. He reluctantly turns assassin when the going gets tough, as its does. And it gets more complicated when it becomes clear that there is an informer in their ranks and both men are forced to question their missions.
“It’s different now,” observes the beguiling courier (Stine Stengade) with whom Flame becomes sexually involved. “Everything is grey.” That line could apply as much to her own enigmatic nature as it does to the web of deception.
Those shades of grey, and the film’s refusal to depict its Flame and Citron as conventional heroes, distinguish the film from more traditionally formed wartime dramas.
Working on a scale far more elaborate and ambitious than his earlier Dogme dramas, director Ole Christian Madsen choreographs the action sequences with striking flair and in the style of classic gangster thrillers.
