Screened as part of NZIFF 2009

Flame & Citron 2008

Flammen & Citronen

Directed by Ole Christian Madsen

The myths surrounding the Danish Resistance during World War II are scathingly reassessed through the eyes of two of its legendary heroes in this action-packed thriller. With Mads Mikkelsen.

Denmark / Germany In Danish and German with English subtitles
130 minutes 35mm / CinemaScope

Producer

Lars Bredo Rahbek

Screenplay

Lars K. Andersen
,
Ole Christian Madsen

Photography

Jørgen Johansson

Editor

Søren B. Ebbe

Production designer

Jette Lehmann

Music

Karsten Fundal

With

Thure Lindhardt (Flame)
,
Mads Mikkelsen (Citron)
,
Stine Stengade (Ketty)
,
Peter Mygind (Winther)
,
Christian Berkel (Hoffmann)
,
Hanns Zischler (Gilbert)

Festivals

Toronto, Vancouver, London 2008

Elsewhere

The myths surrounding the Danish Resistance during World War II are scathingly reassessed through the eyes of two of its legendary heroes in this action-packed thriller. The most expensive film ever made in Denmark it was also a massive homeland hit. Mads Mikkelsen is Citron, a family man who's initially sickened by the idea of murder but who grows into a vicious killer. Thure Lindhardt is Flame, a dapper red-headed assassin who becomes racked by uncertainty. Smuggling British pilots by night and assassinating Nazis by day, they are heroes. But as the war grinds on, the contradictory orders of their British and government-in-exile commanders and their inability to discern friend from foe among colleagues and superiors leave the pair increasingly isolated, a danger to their comrades and themselves. — BG

“It's a taut, complex thriller, but beware: in Flame & Citron, truth is far bleaker than fiction.” — Nicholas Barber, The Independent