One of the curiosities of Christian Carion's espionage drama is that the two leading characters are played by film-makers better known than he is.
Serbian director Emir Kusturica, twice a Cannes Palme d'Or winner, plays KGB colonel Sergei Gregoriev, who passed vital papers to an officer in French Intelligence, codename Farewell (French director Guillaume Canet), in an act that hastens the fall of the Soviet Union.
Adapted from Sergei Kostine's true tale of perfidy, the story makes for a more original thriller than most, with the saving graces of irony and humour. Gregoriev is pictured as a loyal communist who adores Western rock and French poetry and calls Brezhnev "that old fool". He also has a highly disturbed private life. Farewell, on the other hand, has a wife who hates his work and is a bit scared of all the secrecy.
The scenes hop from Moscow to Paris and Washington, with Fred Ward as a jocular President Reagan watching The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Philippe Magnan as a sour Mitterrand and Willem Dafoe as a cold-eyed CIA representative. It's all rather fun and, if true, effectively scotches the idea that spies and political conspirators are in any way flash.
Farewell (L'Affaire Farewell)
Cert: 12A
