The Black Pimpernel (Swedish: Svarta nejlikan; Spanish: El clavel negro) is a 2007 Swedish drama film directed by Ulf Hultberg and Åsa Faringer, and starring Michael Nyqvist and Lisa Werlinder. The film also features Lumi Cavazos, Kate del Castillo, Luis Gnecco and Claire Ross-Brown in supporting roles. A co-production between Sweden, Denmark and Mexico, the film was written by Bob Foss and produced by Michael Lunderskov.
The film dramatizes the story of Harald Edelstam, Sweden's ambassador to Chile, who after the 1973 military coup led by Augusto Pinochet against Salvador Allende used his diplomatic position to shelter and evacuate people being persecuted by the new military junta, ultimately helping more than 1,300 people leave the country by taking them to his embassy and transporting them to Sweden. Edelstam's nickname, "the Black Pimpernel", which gives the film its title, alludes to the fictional hero of The Scarlet Pimpernel, who rescued aristocrats during the French Revolution, and had previously been applied to Edelstam for his role in aiding the Norwegian resistance movement during World War II.
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Synopsis
Following the 1973 coup that overthrows Salvador Allende's government, Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam uses his diplomatic immunity to shelter refugees from the military junta inside the Swedish embassy in Santiago, and conducts nighttime expeditions across the city to find others in need of protection. When soldiers threaten to storm the Cuban embassy, Edelstam personally intervenes and places it under Swedish protection, defying both the Chilean military and members of his own government who oppose his actions. Alongside his political defiance, the film follows a romance between Edelstam and a Chilean activist, complicating his efforts to protect those in his care.
Cast
Michael Nyqvist as Harald Edelstam
Lumi Cavazos
Kate del Castillo as Consuelo Fuentes
Lisa Werlinder as Susanne
Carsten Nørgaard
Daniel Giménez Cacho
Patrick Bergin
Claire Ross-Brown
Alvaro Uccelletti
Cristián Campos
Luis Gnecco
Production
The Black Pimpernel was produced by Mandala Films, Moviefan Scandinavia A/S and Original Film, in association with Amnesty International, as a co-production between Sweden, Denmark and Mexico. Michael Lunderskov served as producer, with Raquel Guajardo as executive producer and Hultberg and Faringer as co-producers. Cinematography was by Dirk Brüel, editing by Leif Axel Kjeldsen, music by Jacob Groth, production design by Peter Grant and costume design by Carol Raddatz Aroca.
Principal photography took place entirely on location in Santiago, Chile, beginning in January 2006, including scenes filmed outside the presidential palace La Moneda and inside the National Stadium, where hundreds of prisoners were tortured and killed following the coup. A short interview with the real Harald Edelstam, filmed before his death in 1989, was appended to the end of the film along with an Amnesty International endorsement.
Release
The film premiered at the Haugesund Film Festival in Norway on August 22, 2007, before opening theatrically in Sweden on September 14, 2007, distributed by Nordisk Film. It was released in Denmark on November 2, 2007. The film grossed approximately $704,740 worldwide.
Reception
Reviewing the film for Variety, Gunnar Rehlin called it "handsome but lacks real punch," praising its "thorough sense of realism" from being shot on the actual locations of the coup but criticizing the film for never getting "under the surface of the material." Rehlin wrote that Nyqvist was "fine as Edelstam" but felt the film as a whole lacked "heartfelt emotion."