The Good Traitor chronicles the remarkable true story of Denmark's ambassador to the US around the time of the outbreak of WW2 Henrick Kaufmann (Ulrich Thomsen). Kaufmann had married an American socialite Charlotte MacDougal (Denise Gough). Kaufmann also had an affair with her sister Zilla (Zoe Tapper). The sisters were remarkably well-connected in the upper echelon's of American society including a close personal friendship with President Franklin Roosevelt (Henry Goodman).
After the Nazi occupation of Denmark, the Danish government essentially capitulated to the Germans and governed as their puppets but Kaufmann was determined for the Danish embassy in the US to defy what he saw was an illegitimate and coerced government of his overlords and so he defiantly declared his (and various other supportive Danish embassies around the world) as representatives of a free and democratic Denmark. Such a course meant not just an instant recall to Copenhagen but cessation of all income. Knowing that the Danish government had repatriated its gold reserves to the US Federal Reserve in New York, Kaufmann embarked upon a cunning campaign of lobbying to gain not just official recognition of his stance but access to the gold. Initially he tried to use the family's connection with President Roosevelt, and the personal friendship that he developed with him, to try and finesse this outcome but to no avail due to pre-Pearl Harbor US caution.
Kaufmann, and his lieutenant Povl Bang-Jensen (Mikel Boe Felsgaard), proposed that the Americans build an air force base on highly strategic Danish controlled Greenland and used this as leverage to gain the needed official US recognition of his embassy's status and access to the gold from which he was able to fund on a regular basis a number of the rebel embassies across the world.
This of course made him temporarily a traitor in the eyes of the puppet government in Copenhagen but as the tide of the war turned and with the invasion at Normandy and the eventual surrender of the Germans, Kaufmann returned to Denmark in May 1945 hailed as a hero. He also became heavily involved in promoting the launch of the United Nations against the wishes of his postwar government.
Given that the movie is mostly set in the United States, quite large portions of the dialogue are in English even though this is a Danish made production. Whilst the topic is riveting, the execution of various aspects of World War II history as continuity to the story really do reflect the limited budget of the movie. That said, it's definitely worth watching.
After the Nazi occupation of Denmark, the Danish government essentially capitulated to the Germans and governed as their puppets but Kaufmann was determined for the Danish embassy in the US to defy what he saw was an illegitimate and coerced government of his overlords and so he defiantly declared his (and various other supportive Danish embassies around the world) as representatives of a free and democratic Denmark. Such a course meant not just an instant recall to Copenhagen but cessation of all income. Knowing that the Danish government had repatriated its gold reserves to the US Federal Reserve in New York, Kaufmann embarked upon a cunning campaign of lobbying to gain not just official recognition of his stance but access to the gold. Initially he tried to use the family's connection with President Roosevelt, and the personal friendship that he developed with him, to try and finesse this outcome but to no avail due to pre-Pearl Harbor US caution.
Kaufmann, and his lieutenant Povl Bang-Jensen (Mikel Boe Felsgaard), proposed that the Americans build an air force base on highly strategic Danish controlled Greenland and used this as leverage to gain the needed official US recognition of his embassy's status and access to the gold from which he was able to fund on a regular basis a number of the rebel embassies across the world.
This of course made him temporarily a traitor in the eyes of the puppet government in Copenhagen but as the tide of the war turned and with the invasion at Normandy and the eventual surrender of the Germans, Kaufmann returned to Denmark in May 1945 hailed as a hero. He also became heavily involved in promoting the launch of the United Nations against the wishes of his postwar government.
Given that the movie is mostly set in the United States, quite large portions of the dialogue are in English even though this is a Danish made production. Whilst the topic is riveting, the execution of various aspects of World War II history as continuity to the story really do reflect the limited budget of the movie. That said, it's definitely worth watching.