It’s 20 years ago this month that Western forces led by the United States invaded Iraq under completely falsified pretenses… which we know about, in part, because of the whistleblowing of Katharine Gun, an employee of the British intelligence organization GCHQ. Keira Knightley portrays her in the 2019 docudrama Official Secrets. This is not a spy thriller but a story of emotional and intellectual suspense wrangling with matters of patriotism and of conscience, and of just how far journalism’s watchdog role can and should take it. (Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, and Rhys Ifans play the journalists who used the information she leaked to break the news.) The stylistic reminders that we’re already living in a dystopia add that extra touch of quiet horror. (Read my 2019 review.)
US: stream on Netflix and Kanopy; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on BBC iPlayer through April 19th; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See Official Secrets at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
