Farewell (2010)

2009

113 mins

1980's-set French spy thriller, from the director of Joyeux Noël, based on real events.

A KGB spy (Emir Kusturica), disenchanted with... More

1980's-set French spy thriller, from the director of Joyeux Noël, based on real events.

A KGB spy (Emir Kusturica), disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev, decides to feed Soviet secrets to the government of French President François Mitterrand (Philippe Magnan). He uses a naive French engineer, with no experience of espionage, as his unlikely intermediary. By avoiding traditional espionage methods – which would be easily detected by the KGB – and not asking for any financial compensation – too capitalist for his taste – the Russian spy smuggles out information that would cause ructions that sounded the death bell of the Soviet Union. Codenamed 'Farewell' by the French Secret Service, he hoped his defection might bring a new world for all Russians, but especially his son.

Allegedly, the Russian Culture Minister blocked most big-name Russian actors to play a role in the movie. He also blocked it from filming in Moscow. Director Christian Carion pretended he was shooting a Coca-Cola advertisement for the few images of the city he collected.

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Farewell (2010) | Ratings & Reviews

86_%78 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
75_%5,037 reviews
Audience score rating

"There is much that is wonderful about this riveting political thriller set at the end of the Cold War, so it is worth overlooking some of the confusing storytelling..."

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Urban Cinefile

"A refreshing reminder in the age of the Bourne movies that spies are real people leading everyday lives..."

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The New York Times

"That's another thing about Carion's direction: He has an eye for unusual, atmospheric touches — the kinds of striking little things you notice in the world and think: “Somebody should put that in a movie” — like the way light filters through trees (from the sun or a helicopter spotlight), a face illuminated for a split second in the back seat of a parked car at night, or a kite spotted by a man who's driving with his head out the side window."

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Roger Ebert

"The extraordinarily little-known true story of how the Cold War-era Russian spy network was brought down from the inside is so startlingly told here that it's breath-taking. Not for how dramatic it is, but for how casually it is portrayed."

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