FLAME & CITRON

FLAME & CITRON is the story of two friends in Denmark who join the resistance against the occupying Nazis during World War II.

Receiving orders from their boss Winther, who in turn receives his orders from the British High Command, Flame and Citron become heroes as they assassinate high ranking German offices and Nazi supporters. Flame becomes embroiled in a relationship with a woman who knows his true identity, though her true loyalty remains a mystery.

Flame and Citron learn, however, that their targets may have actually been Resistance supporters that their boss wanted to kill because he himself is a Nazi supporter. Flame and Citron embrace the guilt of possibly having killed these people and the moral grayness of their situation is explored. It was fine in their minds to kill them if they were Nazis but not okay to kill if they were allies.

In one incident, Citron tries to feed his family by threatening a Nazi grocer. When the grocer offers him money as well, Citron tells him that he’s not a criminal, he’s just trying to feed his family and refuses the money but takes the groceries. The characters struggle to determine morality but without any reference to God or scripture.

In the end, it is never clear exactly who was betraying whom, and the movie suggests that everyone had mixed motives in their actions. The movie has a tragic, yet inevitable, end.

FLAME & CITRON has an intriguing plot loosely based on two real Danish resistance fighters. There are a number of plot holes such as Flame has bright red hair in a town where no one else does. The Nazis know they are looking for a red-haired assassin, yet Flame’s identity is never discovered.

The movie contains much bloodshed as each assassination is shown, often in close up. There is also one, rather graphic sexual scene between an unmarried couple.

The movie has a solid moral center as these two men struggle to fight evil and wrestle with questions about killing, learning that their own allies may be traitors themselves. The movie comes to no moral conclusions really, however, and the true actions of the allies are never fully revealed. Did the girlfriend betray Flame? Did she intend to do that all along or was that something that came up at the end?

FLAME & CITRON is certainly gripping, and the questions raised may be fodder for some provocative conversations. Even so, extreme caution is advised because of the movie’s ambiguous ending, the extreme violence and the sex scene.