The Thousands

Moscow, 1981, and mild-mannered French engineer Pierre Froment (Guillaume Canet) becomes a most unlikely spy. He’s the sole handler for a disillusioned KGB colonel, Sergei Gregoriev (Emir Kusturica) who’s decided to pass top-secret Soviet tech intelligence to the French. Gregoriev doesn’t want money or to escape the USSR: sickened by his country’s debasement of Soviet ideals, he wants to topple the regime. He’s also nostalgic for the French culture he grew to love during a posting in Paris.

Christian Carion’s drama has taken considerable liberties with its historical basis, which undermines its conceit of revealing a “true story”. But it’s still satisfying as an old-fashioned, deeply sentimental Cold War drama, in the vein of The Russia House or Gorky Park.

Farewell wasn’t nearly as triumphal and feelgood as Hollywood whistleblower films. Clammy, dispiriting realpolitik seeps from every bureaucrat and politician, from Fred Ward’s pantomime Ronald Reagan to Willem Dafoe’s unpleasant CIA operator. By contrast, it’s almost pathetic how profoundly aesthetics and ideals move Gregoriev. There’s a sublime, sad moment when he sticks his head out his car window while driving, and poignancy in his attempts to reach out to his wife and son with tidbits of decadent Western culture.