OFFICIAL SECRETS

Somehow this 2019 film went under my radar despite it being right in my wheelhouse: a political thriller based on a real life case of a whistle blower in the runup to the Iraq War.

The whistle blower in question was Katherine Gun, a translator at GCHQ, and she leaked a memo which revealed that the US and UK governments were looking to dig up dirt on some UN delegates who were likely to vote against a vital UN resolution.

She is played by Keira Knightley who gives the best performance I can remember by her.  She is ably supported by a fine cast, including Matt Smith, Matthew Goode and Rhys Ifans as Observer journalists, and especially Ralph Fiennes as Gun's defence lawyer when she is charged under the Official Secrets Act.

I guess you could criticise it for being a little predictable but it has the merit of being an accurate depiction of a brave action which might have saved a lot of lives.  And I was certainly on tenterhooks as to how it would all end.