OFFICIAL SECRETS (15) ★★★★★

A BRITISH spy risks her freedom “to stop a war and save lives” in slow-burning thriller Official Secrets.

Based on the true story of whistleblower Katharine Gun, who leaked top-secret information to the press in 2003 as Tony Blair prepared to take Britain to war in Iraq, director Gavin Hood’s picture bristles with indignation at a political establishment willing

to manufacture a narrative to justify military intervention.

Katharine Gun (a compelling Keira Knightley) works as a translator at GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) in Cheltenham, which gathers intelligence to protect the United Kingdom. Ahead of a pivotal UN Security Council meeting, GCHQ receives an email from American counterparts at the National Security Agency asking for information on member nations including Angola, Cameroon and Pakistan, “who could swing the vote in favour of war”. Gun is troubled and secretly prints out a copy of the email and leaks the contents, via a friend, to journalist Yvonne Ridley (Hattie Morahan), who in turn passes the damning request to Martin Bright (Matt Smith) at The Observer. When the story makes the front page, Gun is charged with a breach of the Official Secrets Act and her Kurdish husband, Yasar (Adam Bakri), faces deportation. Human rights barrister Ben Emmerson (Ralph Fiennes) agrees to represent Gun. Official Secrets is a wellcrafted distillation of events behind closed doors, which shaped the course of history.