Release date: 1 July

Length: 113 minutes

Rating: M (Mature themes and infrequent coarse language)

Middle-aged KGB Colonel Grigoriev (Emir Kusturica) is disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev, the irretrievable corruption is too much to ignore. Recognising that he will likely never live to see the change, he acts so the world in which his teenage son will live will be a different place.

To avoid being exposed as a traitor by other KGB agents, Grigoriev enlists the help of an unlikely collaborator; French engineer Pierre (Guillaume Canet). Pierre is entrusted with highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the US, and is instructed to pass them on to the French government. Bewildered, Pierre has no desire in entering into the world of espionage but is torn between the fear of putting his wife (Alexandra Maria Lara, "The Reader") and children in danger and the desire to know more.

‘Farewell’ details the little known events that would lead to the French intelligence service alerting the U.S. about a Soviet spy operation during the height of the Cold War. This amazing chain of events places the two men and their families in extreme peril and eventually leads to the downfall of the Soviet Union.

The film is set for the most part in Moscow in the early 80’s and is an international espionage drama/thriller by academy award nominated director Christian Carion (‘Joyeux Noel’) that boasts an international cast including William Defoe as a cold CIA agent. Written by Eric Raynaud and based on the book ‘Bonjour Farewell’ by Serquei Kostine, the film takes us deep into the unlikely friendship of these two anti-Bond type spies.

It is a beautifully shot, well-acted (the two leads being directors also) and well-written film with a killer soundtrack (including Queen and Pink Floyd) that seems to capture the mood of 1980's Russia wonderfully. The art direction and set design is often spellbinding, especially Grigoriev’s apartment, that acts as a window into his soul as he comes to terms with his certain fate.

The film often switches point of view between the tense and humorous relationship of Grigoriev and Pierre and the political interactions of president Ragan and French President Mitterrand. This becomes disengaging to the point that you don’t know who or what you should be investing in, which in tern devalues the emotional and dramatic moments, so they never quite reach the height they are intended.

I almost connected with Grigoriev’s son, but was left thinking that maybe much of his subplot was left on the cutting room floor to make way for the caricature that is Fred Ward playing Ronald Reagan. The scenes with Ronal Ragan and his advisor as well as with French President Mitterrand (Phillippe Magnan) seem so out of place in this otherwise intimate story that it becomes jarring. By splitting it down the middle we don’t get enough of either to have a strong enough connection and in tern this leads to the tense finale not hitting the emotional peaks it could have.

Its flaws aside ‘Farewell’ is a captivating story of spies and lies, friendship and Cold War politics.

Distinction

Tom Campbell.