The Black Pimpernel

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.