A Call to Spy - Film Review

A Call to Spy - Film Review

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Posted 2020-12-10 by Jenfollow

Directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher, Written and Produced by Sarah Megan Thomas and Starring Sarah Megan Thomas, Stana Katic, Radhika Apte & Linus Roache, A Call to Spy is a multi-award winner (Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Whistler Film Festival), and was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. With a run time of 123 minutes and rated M, it'll be screening in cinemas nationally on Boxing Day, 26 December 2020.

Set in 1941, this historical drama was inspired by actual events and follows three little-known female heroes of WWII who put their lives on the line at a time when there were no experienced spies for this type of warfare; to build resistance and conduct sabotage. They were recruited and joined in their quest for freedom when Winston Churchill hastily created a spy agency, the SOE (Special Operations Executive) to begin a secret war to disrupt the Nazi war machine in France. The SOE housed on Baker Street in central London was sometimes referred to as The Baker Street Irregulars, Churchill's Secret Army and the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.


A Romanian Jewish immigrant in London, SOE's spymistress and F Section's intelligence officer Vera Atkins (Stana Katic) works closely as an assistant to Special Operations Executive Colonel Maurice Buckmaster - French Section, and recruits two unusual candidates: Virginia Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas), an ambitious American with a wooden leg who made several attempts to become a diplomat with the US Foreign Service and was rejected due to her disability, and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Atpe), a Muslim pacifist and wireless operator. Together, these women help to undermine the Nazi regime in France, leaving an unmistakable legacy in their wake.

So used to seeing Stana Katic in action roles like the TV series Castle (2009-2016) and Absentia (2017); she managed to command the screen as Vera Atkins, without being one of the key women going to war, where all the action is, as a spy. As the recruiter charged with building a network of French-speaking female undercover operatives who spends all her time in the office, it could have been a boring role to watch play out, but for her ability to make her role interesting through the pure power of an impressive performance. She managed to balance equal parts of determination and vulnerability.


The meatiest role goes to Sarah Megan Thomas who wrote, produced and stars in this film as Germany's most wanted spy, Virginia Hall. She plays one of the first spies to go into action, dropped into Vichy France to contact agents and help get them out before she makes her way to Lyon to organise attacks and assist agents as they pass through. It's her role that takes us through most of the story of the film, occasionally briefly connecting with the recruiter and wireless operator played by her other two co-stars. A whole spin-off movie could be made about her story alone, as this film doesn't really delve into, or has the time for us to get to know the lives of each woman.

Radhika Apte is an Indian actress, stripped of her makeup as a wireless operator smuggled into German-occupied France. She plays the daughter of a Sufi preacher and musician from India and an American mother. A self-described pacifist she sees herself as a spiritual person operating in love, and not motivated by hate. She adds an emotional depth to the film when you take a moment to realise that these women hit the ground with not enough know-how by the department to support and help them out when they encountered danger.

Overall, this film is not a tense spy thriller, nor does it strive to focus on the culmination of a major event. It brings a long-overdue homage to female spies without relying on stereotypes of fragility, helplessness or scantily clad vixens. Their strength lies in their cunning, their brains and their resolve to get out of sticky, life-threatening situations, without portraying them as super beings. A film with a built-in commonality of females in the house, it doesn't push lady-bonding but focuses on the impressive resourcefulness of each woman, simply attempting to stay alive and navigate their way through the war in a time of trial and many errors.





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84517 - 2023-06-11 06:55:29

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