An Officer and a Spy

An Officer and a Spy is a historical drama set in France at the end of the nineteenth century. Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish artillery captain, is convicted of passing military secrets to Germany and sent to a penal colony on Devil's Island. Georges Picquart, who witnessed Dreyfus's public degradation, is promoted to head the counterintelligence unit that handled the case. When secret information continues to reach the Germans, Picquart comes to believe the wrong man was condemned. His superiors order him to drop the matter; he continues investigating and enters a maze of deceit and corruption that puts his reputation and his life at risk. The screenplay, written by Roman Polanski with Robert Harris, follows the affair largely through Picquart's perspective rather than Dreyfus's.

The film is directed by Roman Polanski and is the twenty-second of the twenty-three features he has directed, arriving after Based on a True Story and before The Palace. Jean Dujardin plays Picquart, with Louis Garrel as Dreyfus and Grégory Gadebois, Hervé Pierre and Wladimir Yordanoff among the large credited cast of eighty-six. Made for about 25 million dollars, it returned roughly 19 million worldwide.

Viewers are positive but not unanimous: it holds 7.2 out of 10 on IMDb from around 23,000 votes and 7.1 out of 10 on TMDB from a smaller sample. Critics, at 7.4 out of 10 from 46 reviews, rated it somewhat higher than audiences did.