DENMARK AND WW2

Forget Iron Lady or Mission Impossible 4, the Danish film hit of the year is undoubtedly Hvidsten Gruppen ("the Whitestone Group"), the true story of a WW2 resistance group based around the Hvidsten Inn in Jutland. The group hid weapons and agents parachuted in by the British, but they were caught when one of the agents was arrested by the Germans in Copenhagen and revealed all. Eight Danes, three from the family that ran the inn, were shot.

Readers of this blog will know from an earlier post that Denmark's relationship with Germany has long been a tricky one; and the period of occupation from 1940-45 the trickiest part of it. As a foreigner, it has always seemed as if the time was something that Danes would rather not talk about. Yet the success of the film suggests that there is huge interest in it. As of last week, it had been seen in the cinema by roughly 700,000 people, getting on for 15% of the population.

For us at the local cinema, it has been a great success, playing to full houses every night. I showed the film to 114 pensioners last Tuesday morning, and we had to turn people away. Normally, when the credits come up at the end, some people stand up and begin to leave; this time, nobody moved until the screen went completely dark.

We have had Flammen og Citronen and Hvidsten Gruppen, two films about resistance fighters. Now all that is needed is a film about the Danes that collaborated with the Germans, of which there were more than a few. That would be the most difficult of all, but probably necessary, if there is to be real closure.

Walter Blotscher