TÄCKNAMN COQ ROUGE
(Codename Coq Rouge)
Sweden, 1989, 90 minutes
Per
Berglund
CAST
Stellan Skarsgård - Carl
Hamilton
Lennart Hjulström - Näslund
Krister Henriksson - Fristedt
Philip Zandén - Appeltoft
Bengt Eklund - Den gamle
Lars Green - Ponti
Roland Hedlund - Folkesson
Anette Kischinowsky - Fatumeh
Harald Hamrell - Johansson
Lena T. Hansson - Eva Hamilton
Gustaf Skarsgård - Erik Hamilton
THEATRE RELEASE
August 25, 1989
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SYNOPSIS
A
CIA-trained agent - nicknamed Coq Rouge - alias Carl Hamilton, a
lieutenant in the Swedish Navy, is given a special assignment: to
investigate a planned operation in Sweden, Plan Dalet. Hamilton is not
popular with Säpo, but when everyone has the opportunity to stop the
terrorists is tried, he is hired..Top-trained, life-threatening and
ruthless. he eventually ends up in Lebanon in search of the weapon used
in the assassination of Säpo's head of the Middle East. Meanwhile, an
Israeli far-right command attacks the PLO headquarters.
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PRODUCTION
NOTES/IMAGES:Filmed in 1988 by Spice
Produktion with locations in Stockholm and Morocco.
MOVIE
STILLS:
POSTERS:
STORYLINE
(Spoilers):
The Swedish counter-espionage has acquired a new secret weapon. The
weapon is named Carl Gustaf Gilbert Hamilton, former clarteist and FNL
member , lieutenant in the Navy's reserve and secretly trained as a
field operator in the USA where he trained for Navy SEAL while studying
political science and computer technology. During his Swedish
conscription training as an attack diver, Hamilton was recruited by the
former IB-the boss DG, who will be his personal mentor. DG has a vision
to build a new generation in the intelligence service, consisting of
competent field operators with the western world's best knowledge in
both computer technology and small arms and melee, and Hamilton will be
the first prototype.
After his return, however, Hamilton has not been able to get a job at
the new military intelligence service, due to political complications
and Swedish trade union rules and not least opposition from the military
leadership who are skeptical of both the DG's vision and Hamilton's past
as an outspoken communist. Instead, Hamilton has for the past two years
worked as a computer specialist at the Security Police .
When a high-ranking Säpo official is found shot in his car at Djurgården,
Hamilton is called in to take part in the murder investigation, and ends
up under the head of Agency B, which works with the hunt for spies and
terrorists. The murdered Axel Folkesson was a specialist in the Middle
East and had worked alone with something called "Plan Dalet", which the
murder investigators believe is an Arab terrorist act against Sweden.
The suspicions are immediately directed at Palestinian terrorist groups
and various Swedes with left-wing sympathies. During the course of the
story, Hamilton feels more and more contempt and disgust for the Säpo
chief, Henrik P Näslund, as Näslund's prejudices lead the investigation
in the wrong direction, which only results in innocent left-wing
sympathizers being arrested and harassed.
When Hamilton begins to make his first mark in the spy world, he is
given the international code name Coq Rouge . This ironic code name
arises during a meeting between Näslund and an Israeli colonel and is
partly due to the fact that the Israeli intelligence service has long
had the nickname "rooster chickens" for its Swedish colleagues and
because Hamilton is an old communist, and for drinking a red wine with a
red rooster symbol on the label.
The investigation takes Hamilton to Lebanon and Israel and back to
Stockholm again. In Lebanon, he receives help from the PLO , through
contacts from Ponti, and meets for the first time the young female
intelligence officer Mouna. In Israel, he gets help from Shulamit
Hanegbi, a young security officer, with whom he begins a short love
affair.
Back in Stockholm, it all gets a brutal and bloody final when Plan Dalet
is finally implemented. The terrorists who murdered Folkesson are not
Palestinians at all, but the exact opposite, namely a group of Israeli
field operators who came to Stockholm to carry out a massacre in the
PLO's representation villa. Hamilton arrives late, when the terrorist
attack has already begun and a large number of innocents have been
murdered, but he manages to kill all four Israeli commandos. However,
his boss Näslund lets the evening newspapers tell the public that it was
Arab terrorists who were behind the attack, and seals the entire
investigation.
For his efforts, Hamilton is awarded Gustav III's Medal of Bravery as
the first Swedish officer in 80 years. He is also rewarded by DG getting
him admitted to a captain's course at the Swedish National Defense
College, so that he can get a break from the Security Police and become
easier to instead employ in the military.
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