Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Guillaume Canet | ... | Pierre | |
Emir Kusturica | ... | Grigoriev | |
Alexandra Maria Lara | ... | Jessica | |
Ingeborga Dapkunaite | ... | Natasha | |
Philippe Magnan | ... | Mitterrand | |
Aleksey Gorbunov | ... | Choukhov (as Oleksii Gorbunov) | |
Dina Korzun | ... | Alina | |
Niels Arestrup | ... | Vallier | |
David Soul | ... | Hutton | |
Fred Ward | ... | Reagan | |
Willem Dafoe | ... | Feeney | |
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Marc Berman | ... | Jacques |
Christian Carion | ... | Favier | |
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Evgeniy Kharlanov | ... | Igor (as Yevgeni Kharlanov) |
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Lauriane Riquet | ... | Ophelie |
In 1985, Sergei Gregoriev, a Soviet colonel, wants to force his nation to reform, so he leaks secret information to the West. He picks an unlikely contact, a Pierre Froment, French nebbish in the diplomatic corps. Gregoriev keeps a lot of balls in the air - a marriage, a teen son he's trying to bond with, a mistress who's a colleague at work; his tradecraft is equally reckless. Meanwhile, Froment keeps his spy work secret from his German wife, and Mitterrand uses Gregoriev's information to make France indispensable to Reagan and his government. When Gregoriev leaks a list of key Soviet moles and spies, Gorbachev is left without secret intelligence. Will Gregoriev get what he wants? Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
What a brilliant movie. Spies, lies,twisted mind games. No explosions, no bullets, no exciting background music, no old hat tricks. Inspite of that, or better, because of that, tense, suspenseful and original movie. Real spies are not superheroes, flying through the air, ducking hundreds of bullets, overpowering dozens of villains with their martial arts skills unparalleled in the universe. Most of the time they happen to be, timid or coerced or dedicated to a cause. Their job is not glamorous, they scurry like rats in a dark alley, they sweat and smell,sometimes they live, most of the time they die. Finally the real spy movie, deep and harsh, leaving the sickening feeling. As usual the decent, courageous people get shoved aside or get killed for a higher cause- saving some ambitious creep's ass.