In 2003, GCHQ translator Katharine Gun turned whistleblower by leaking documents that shed a new, disturbing light on the invasion of Iraq. Her story is captured in Gavin Hood’s drama Official Secrets, starring Keira Knightley, Matt Smith and Ralph Fiennes. Total Film visits the set to discover a film determined to tell the truth.
Today, the beautiful first-floor interior of Bradford City Hall is awash with the crew, cables, cameras, and a rather illustrious cast. The film is Official Secrets, Gavin Hood’s stirring account of British whistleblower Katharine Gun. The set is the antechambers of the Old Bailey, the country’s most venerable court of law. And Gun – played by Keira Knightley – is about to learn her fate after spending eight months on bail.
A GCHQ translator, Gun stumbled across a memo in early 2003 from America’s National Security Agency urging its British ally to coerce members of the UN Security Council to vote for the impending war in Iraq. “It was a line that I didn’t think we should cross,” explains Gun, when Total Film speaks with her via Skype. Instinctively, at the time, she smuggled the memo. “It was a leak that was trying to save lives,” suggests Knightley.
While Gun might be less famous than whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, her actions didn’t go unnoticed. Daniel Ellsberg, the ex-US military analyst responsible for exposing the Pentagon Papers during the Nixon administration, called Gun’s work “the most important and courageous leak I have ever seen”. It was this bravery that first intrigued Hood, a former lawyer whose politically charged credits include Eye In The Sky and Rendition.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2019-Ausgabe von Total Film.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2019-Ausgabe von Total Film.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Back With a Vengeance - Sir Ridley Scott returns to the Colosseum with Gladiator II, the long-awaited sequel to the greatest historical epic of this century. Total Film meets the director and cast to discover how Maximus' legacy is echoing in eternity.
Ridley Scott is not a filmmaker to repeat himself. It's a trait that's all the more remarkable when you consider how prolific he's been over the nearly five decades since his feature debut, 1977's The Duellists. Alien prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are the only times he's gone back to the same world, and those films are radical departures from the original.
Bad Romance - Timestalker Alice Lowe falls in love with the wrong man time and time again...
Her antidote to that? Timestalker a dark not-quite-romcom set over the course of centuries. Her protagonist Agnes finds herself attracted to the same man, Alex (Dunkirk's Aneurin Barnard), in every lifetime as she's reincarnated in the 1680s, 1790s, 1980s and the 22nd century. As romantic as that may sound, there's a bit of a catch: 'He's sort of a dickhead. On the surface he's appealing, but under, he's not.'
McQueen & Country
A moment of national pride and terror comes to the screen with World War Two historical drama Blitz. Total Film speaks to writer/director Steve McQueen and his stars Saoirse Ronan and Stephen Graham about uncovering the truth and celebrating the triumph of a defining moment in modern British history.
'I WAS, AND AM STILL, SURPRISED BY EVERY OPPORTUNITY. I'VE BEEN CONTINUOUS AND FEEL AT THE TOP OF MY FORM' JEFF GOLDBLUM
Seth Brundle. Dr. Ian Malcolm. Grandmaster. Jeff Goldblum has played some titanic characters over his 50-year career, and is celebrating a half-century on our screens by going bigger than ever. First he played Zeus in Netflix show Kaos, and now he's the Wizard of Oz in Wicked. Total Film meets the man behind the curtain...
STICKY SITUATION
Seven years on from his last big-screen appearance, marmalade's biggest fan returns for Paddington in Peru. Total Film talks to director Dougal Wilson, actor Hugh Bonneville and the visual-effects wizards who make the magic happen...
BORN TO BE WILD
BROTHERS IS THE MOST SURPRISING ACTION COMEDY OF THE YEAR, AND NOT JUST BECAUSE JOSH BROLIN AND PETER DINKLAGE PLAY CRIMINAL TWINS. TOTAL FILM ROUNDS UP THE STARS TO TALK ABOUT DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, THE 'HARD AS NAILS' COMEDIES THEY GREW UP WITH, AND MASTURBATING MONKEYS...
TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT Payal Kapadia's film shows the Mumbai you've never seen...
HUMPH DAY BOGART: LIFE COMES IN FLASHES
Behind every great man is a great woman. Or in Humphrey Bogart's case, four great women...
CALLING THE SHOTS
NEVER LOOK AWAY Lucy Lawless directs a bio-doc about a trailblazing camerawoman...
A FAMILY HEIRLOOM
THE PIANO LESSON Malcolm Washington's feature debut is all about family...