Mary & Frederik @ gala movie The Flame and the Lemon

Last Tuesday evening (March 25) Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary attended the gala premiere of the World War II Danish resistance movie Flammen og Citronen (The Flame and The Lemon) set in Copenhagen in 1944. The movie is based on the real story of the two resistence fighters of the title. Ninety six-year-old Elisabeth Bomhoff, who presented flowers to Mary, was a member of the Danish resistance movement during the war. She was giving refuge to 'The Flame' in his last days. It was in her house that he was hiding when the Gestapo arrived one day and surrounded the house. The Flame took a cyanide capsule before they could capture him.


Photos: © TV2/Scanpix




Billed Bladet 'De kongelige ser Flammen og Citronen'
Royalty sees The Flame and The Lemon
Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik were...invited to the Imperial Biografen [cinema] as guests of honour at the gala opening night of Ole Christian Madsen's new film Flammen & Citronen...The head of court (Chamberlain) for the Crown Prince and Princess Per Thornit and his wife Ulla Thornit [also attended].
The royals ...met with the director Ole Christian Madsen, the actors Mads Mikkelsen, Thure Lindhardt, Stine Stengade and Peter Mygind as well as producer Lars Bredo Rahbek.
They also had the opportunity to meet Elisabeth Bomhoff (the 96-year-old who harboured the Flame in her basement), who was accompanied by Peter Øvig Knudsen and Gunnar Dyrberg (one a member of the resistance and the other a "colleague" of the Flame).
The movie: While the Danish population hopes for the war's end, the resistance members Bent Faurschou-Hviid (23), known as the Flame (Thure Lindhartd) and Jørgen Haagen Schmith (33), known as the Lemon (Mads Mikkelsen), hid at great risk as part of the Holger Danske group.
The fearless and uncompromising Flame is a committed anti-fascist and dreams about the day when the whole group can operate in the open and go on an armed counter attack on the occupying power, Germany.
The more sensitive Father and family man, The Lemon, has so far mainly acted as a driver for The Flame, but is now more deeply drawn into the group's work.

Berlingske Tidende

Movie's official site
The National Museum has an exhibition
Danish Resistance Movement on Wikipedia
The Rescue of the Jews in Denmark (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) - read the story about how all of Denmark worked to secretly remove 99% of Jews in Denmark to Sweden to prevent their deportation to Germany
Rescue of the Danish Jews on Wikipedia

Flammen & Citronen/ Flame & Citron
Director: Ole Christian Madsen, 2008
Copenhagen, 1944. Denmark is occupied by Nazi Germany. Flame and Citron are two legendary resistance fighters charged with liquidating Danish informers. By order of their commander, they now consent to kill Germans as well. But when Flame is asked to execute his girlfriend Ketty, an enigmatic Stockholm courier, he questions his orders, wondering who Ketty really is. In the struggle for freedom all zones appear grey, and it becomes increasingly unclear who is friend and who is foe. Based on true events.


TV2 photo gallery

Berlingske Tidende WebTV (01:18)
Go' morgen Danmark TV2 (08:47)
Se og Hør WebTV (00:59)

(many thanks to Muhler and also to kay)