Playing in a limited run throughout the United States Gavin Hood’s drama Official Secrets  starring Kiera Knightly and Ralph Fiennes the story is inspired by actual events surrounding the United Kingdom’s skullduggery in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Knightly plays Katherine Gunn a language translator working for the GCHQ, Government Communication Head Quarters the heart of British signals intelligence where Gunn translates foreign language communications by suspected enemies of the United Kingdom. As the United States attempts to obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing an invasion of Iraq, Gunn’s department is directed to intercept personal communications of ambassadors on the Security Council in order to provide leverage for the United States to ‘convince’ the Ambassadors to support the invasion. In other words hoping to find blackmail material to rig the vote. Faced with such maleficence leaks the memo running afoul of the UK’s ‘Official Secrets Act’ and when the press, through the actions of journalist Martin Bright played by Matt Smith, publishes the memo an intensive investigation for the source of the breach is launched threatening Gunn with decades in prison.

Official Secrets  is Hood’s second foray into politically charged controversial cinema, following up on his masterful film Eye in the Sky  that used a fictional operation to crack open the complex morality surrounding drone warfare. Hood’s approach in Eye was even handed, presenting the complexities of combat where stark right and wrong often evaporates in the fog of war.  In Official Secrets  there are few shades of grey but that could be my own viewpoint coloring my opinion as I was staunchly against the invasion and firmly support that idea of whistleblowers that expose governmental misdeeds. What I can say is that the film is excellent in every regard, the writing, the directing, the acting, all create a reality that is tense, taunt, and never overblown. There is a temptation in drama inspired by actual events to heighten the action, meaning figures in the dark, high-speed chases down airport runways, to think that action is required for stakes and that is a misplaced concern. Official Secrets  opens with Gunn having to enter her plea and when the film return to that moment there is no doubt about the enormous stakes that rest on her answer.

I can fully recommend this movie to anyone who’s entranced by superior dramatic fiction.