Idealisten is a Danish foreign language film that tells the story of a whistleblower who attempts to uncover evidence from a conspiracy surrounding the 1968 nuclear disaster at the Thule airbase in Greenland.
The film also includes old video footage from 1968 and follows the main character in his investigation 18 years after the accident.
The film touches on many issues stemming from the Thule disaster, Cold War relations and ethics around how evidence is often covered up or withheld from the public.
Synopsis
Idealisten follows it's main character Poul Brink who works as a reporter for a local radio station in Denmark.
While reporting on a workers compensation case Poul ends up connecting the case to the Thule incident of 1968.
Soon after, Poul begins an investigation into the Thule incident. Becoming transfixed on it. He dives deep into old Danish and American archives attempting to uncover the true story of what happened at Thule and how it had been such a well-kept secret.
The remainder of the film follows Poul as he finds himself at the heart of the biggest international cover-up in Danish history.
Important Themes
From reading above it is clear to see that Idealisten is a film riddled with history, drama and political conspiracy.
The film tells a fictionalized account that lead up to the 1995 "Thulegate" political scandal.
In 1957, Denmark signed a nuclear-free zone policy leading up to the Paris NATO summit later on that year. The policy was enacted to make the stockpiling of nuclear weapons on their land illegal.
So, when a bomber crashed at Thule air base in 1968 there was suspicion and accusation that the policy had been breached.
Both American and Danish governments claimed that the bomber in question had an emergency which saw the plane diverted towards Greenland, making it clear that the bomber was not on a routine mission.
However, it was uncovered more than 18 years later that this was a lie and that flights over Greenland and stops at Thule by Americans were a regular occurrence.
A national commission was formed by the Dane government which found former Prime Minister H. C. Hansen at fault for purposely creating ambiguity on the US-Denmark security agreement.
The commission also found that the Americans had stockpiled nuclear weapons at Greenland up to 1965.
A breakdown of Thulegate can be found here.
Furthermore workers compensation demands flooded the Danish government offices in the mid-90's.
Danish workers involved in the clean-up operation claimed long-term health problems resulting from their exposure to radiation. Hundreds suffered from fatal illnesses later on in life and a 1995 survey found that cancer attributed to the deaths of 410 people out of a sample of 1,500 workers.
Hundreds of workers attempted to file cases against the United States but were unsuccessful. And in 1995 the Danish government paid 1,700 workers each compensation of 50,000 kroner (around $313,115).
Conclusion
All in all Idealisten is a detailed and thrilling film which tells the story of a man dead-set on revealing the truth of a nuclear disaster.
It is a film that I found very intriguing, but maybe that's because of my background in political science.
That being said I found that the film stayed relatively close to real-facts and succeeded in telling a story that was both entertaining and thrilling.
Idealisten is a good watch for any history buffs out there and I highly recommend it to those interested in political thrillers. It's one of the best out there.
