Official Secrets

Official Secrets is a political drama set in Britain in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Katharine Gun, a translator at the government's communications headquarters, receives an internal message from the American side asking British colleagues to help gather compromising material on several members of the UN Security Council, with the aim of pressuring them into backing the war. She decides to pass the document to the press, and once it appears in an newspaper, her employer begins hunting for whoever leaked it. She eventually admits to what she did, is arrested and charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act, and faces the possible deportation of her husband while she and her lawyers try to defend her actions in court.

Gavin Hood directed and co-wrote the film with Gregory Bernstein and Sara Bernstein. It is the sixth feature he directed, following Tsotsi, Rendition, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ender's Game and Eye in the Sky, and it continues his interest in stories about state power and the people caught inside it. Keira Knightley plays Gun, with Matt Smith as journalist Martin Bright, Ralph Fiennes as her lawyer Ben Emmerson, Adam Bakri as her husband Yasar, and Matthew Goode and Rhys Ifans among the supporting cast. The production drew on a modest budget and returned around 9 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.3/10 from 60,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2/10 from about 1,155 votes; critics were somewhat less enthusiastic, at 6.9/10 across 167 reviews.