![]() The revelations caused a political storm at the time and saw Gun charged with breaching the UK’s Official Secrets Act. ![]() It centres on how and why Gun decided to leak a top-secret US intelligence memo in 2003 that requested the UK’s help in spying on the non-aligned United Nations Security Council members to win a key vote authorising the war. “This film might go some way to redressing that – let’s see,” Gun, a former intelligence translator, told AFP news agency as the film starring Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes and Matt Smith opened in London this week following a US premiere in August. Katharine Gun, a former employee of the United Kingdom intelligence agency GCHQ, believes that the film, called Official Secrets, could cause a reassessment of the partially-repaired reputations of the UK and US leaders behind the military action.įormer Prime Minister Tony Blair and former United States President George W Bush were dogged by criticism for years after launching the conflict that ultimately killed hundreds of thousands of people, but has rehabilitated their images in some parts of the world in recent years. Around his star Hood has assembled a comprehensively fine cast, with a particularly lovely turn by Ralph Fiennes as the lawyer determined to defend Gun against the odds.A British woman responsible for a dramatic intelligence leak in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq has said she hopes a new film about her efforts will refocus attention on the flawed evidence that led to war. He’s on strong form here, with a film that’s gripping, righteous, relevant, moving – in short, a very, very good yarn that just happens to be true.Īt the heart of it is Knightley, impressively commanding as a woman who is principled and defiant, but also deeply vulnerable as the government cranks up its intimidation. Gavin Hood is an intriguing director, alternating between mainstream fare ( X-Men Wolverine, kids’ sci-fi Ender’s Game) and issues-based dramas charting government malfeasance, such as rendition ( Rendition) and the use of drone strikes ( Eye in the Sky). Hereon, the action switches urgently between the paper’s investigation of the memo’s authenticity and Katharine’s personal hell as the leak is revealed, which includes the threat of deportation for her Muslim husband Yasar (Adam Bakri). Once Smith appears on screen – quickly followed by the equally energetic (nay combustible) Rhys Ifans as fellow journalist Ed Vuillamy – there’s a sonic boom. ![]() Until now the film has been operating on something of a whisper. Katharine secretly copies the memo and smuggles it out of GCHQ to a friend who is an anti-war activist, through whom it reaches Observer journalist Martin Bright (Matt Smith, pictured above right with Matthew Goode). In the UK the very idea of the war is historically unpopular with the public – and here’s evidence of its illegality. ![]() One day she and her colleagues receive a classified email from America’s National Security Agency, requesting that the Brits spy on delegates from the UN’s security council, with a view to blackmailing them to vote for the resolution in favour of war, whose chief proponents are President Bush and Tony Blair. ![]() Katharine is working as a Mandarin translator at the intelligence agency GCHQ, in Cheltenham. The film opens with Gun about to face trial for breaching the Official Secrets Act – Knightley’s face expressing the sheer terror of someone in that position – before winding back a year to explain how she got there. And the power of the film resides in the fact that the idealistic, courageous Katharine Gun would not. The current occupant of No 10 isn’t the first to be economical with the truth the real shock is that we keep on putting up with it. There’s simply no escaping the resonance. “Just because you’re the Prime Minister doesn’t mean you get to make up your own facts.” ![]()
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