OUR KIND OF TRAITOR

UK, 2016, 108 minutes, Colour.
Ewan Mc Gregor, Stellan Skarsgaard, Damian Lewis, Naomie Harris, Jeremy Northam, Mark Gattis, Khalid Abdalla, Saskia Reeves.
Directed by Susanna White.

Our Kind of treat Traitor is another film version of John Le Carre spy novel. The film versions are always welcome – although some audiences may find this bit lower key.

It Is over 50 Years since John Le Carre began writing novels and films were made. It is half a century since Richard Burton was The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. This means that Le Carre has taken his readership through the decades of the Cold War, to the collapse of communism, through British espionage, through Russian espionage, to wider horizons including Africa and more internationally with The Night Manager Manager and this film.

Audiences who like a variety of international locations will enjoy an opening in Moscow, the setting of the drama in Morocco, transfer to London, Swiss variety with the use of locations in Berne, including the Einstein Museum, and then out into the Alps.

By 2016, the subject of the Le Carre story is International money laundering, this time by the Russian Mafia who are on the lookout for establishing a bank to do their laundering in London. It seems they have several British politicians in their pocket – the kind of mercenary traitor that they can rely on. On the other hand, they have a traitor from within their own ranks, the man who manages the money and signs the documents, not their kind of traitor but one who could be welcomed by MI6.

At the centre of the film is a rather quiet British couple, on holiday in Morocco, some tensions in their marriage, but drawn into international intrigue which actually makes better persons of them, standing on principle and helping others and drawing them closer to each other. Ewan Mc Gregor is Perry, not your everyday hero but the everyday citizen who can become one. He teaches Politics at London University. His wife, Gail, played by Naomie Harris, is a prominent London barrister.

Into their lives comes the boisterous, extraordinarily boisterous Stellan Skarsgaard as the Mafia accountant, Dima. Very early in the film, he passes a memory stick to Perry who experiences MI6 officials at Heathrow on his return. The leader is Hector, played by Damian Lewis who got in a lot of rehearsal time for this kind of role in the TV series, Homeland. He has his eye on the chief treacherous British politician, Jeremy Northam, but is unable to persuade his boss, Mark Gattis, to give him permission to pursue the case.

Which means that he does and there are meetings in Paris, tracking of the Russian criminals, rendezvous after a tennis match with Dima giving information but wanting his wife and children to be taken to England and protection.

But, not enough information handed over, so a transition to Switzerland where the film becomes more suspenseful and with some action.

Because this is a Le Carre story, there is not a completely happy ending – but, symbolically and with some subtlety, the final image is a contemporary version of T. S. Elliott’s lines from The Waste Land about the processiion of people over London Bridge, and the implied unsettlement in society.

1. The popularity of the novels of John Le Carre? Film versions? 50 years of novels and films? The history of espionage, especially the UK, USSR, and changes since the fall of communism?

2. The 21st-century story, the Russian Mafia, British politics, MI6, money laundering, payoffs, betrayal?

3. The title, preferring to deem are, attracted to the Russian Mafia, the British parliamentarians and the approval of the bank for money laundering?

4. The variety of settings, Morocco, London, Paris, Berne, the mountains? The musical score?

5. The opening in Moscow, Prince, the plan for the bank, his talking about his inheritance, his underling and the gift of the gun? The ballet, the audiences? The drive to the countryside, the roadblock, the brutality of the killing, the pursuit of the girl in the snow?

6. Morocco, Perry and Gail, an ordinary couple, professor of poetics, barrister? Initial sexual encounter, the difficulties? Going for the drink, sharing, Dima and his looking at the couple, Perry and his interest, Gail going back to the hotel, the invitation, Perry going to the party, the drinking, the atmosphere, the attractive woman? The plan for tennis, Dima, playing with the children, his wife, the little girls orphans from the murder in the snow? Dima giving Perry the memory stick?

7. Dima, boisterous character, his work for the Russian Mafia, the accounts? His wife and children? Tennis? Concern about his daughter? The money, the bank, the bribes? Getting his family out getting them protection?

8. Perry and Gail, the return to England, passport difficulties? Hector and Luke, the interrogations?

9. Hector, Billy as the head of MI6? Going to the Emirates Stadium? Tracking the politician, the information about him? Hector trying to persuade Billy? Billy forbidding the enquiry, the political difficulties between the UK and Russia? Hector lying to his associates? Continuing the pursuit?

10. Hector, his visits, persuading Perry and Gail to go to Paris, that cover? The alleged coincidence with Dima in Paris? The Russians and their suspicions? The tennis game, the meeting in the dressing room, Hector and Dima and the information, Hector saying it was not enough? Needing the account numbers rather than the list of names provided?

11. Perry and Gail, the Russian giving the lift, suspicious, the delay in the house with the baby, the getting out, the feeling of threat? The two becoming much more involved in the situation? The change of heart for each, becoming stronger, principles and convictions, and mutual love and respect?

12. The gathering in Berne, the beauty of the city, the signing of the document, Prince and his being jovial, the gift of the gun to Dima? Dima, boisterous, the signing of the document? The irony of the scene with the credit card and his memorising the numbers? His memorising the list of accounts?

13. The Berne meetings, the role of the Russians, Dima’s wife and children going with Gail to the Einstein Museum? The escape? Dima in the kitchen, Perry coming to help, the fight, deaths? Driving to the safe house? The cover car and trucks?

14. At the safe house, Anna, age, pining for her boyfriend, phoning him? The Russians tracking down the location of the safe house? The attack, Luke being wounded, Dima out in the forest, the pursuit, Perry killing his attacker? The family moving again?

15. The politician, his arrogance, confronting Hector? The amount of money received as a bribe, his presence in Berne? Billy and his reaction to the failed attempt?

16. The plan with a helicopter, Billy’s intervention? Dima persuading Perry not to go? The helicopter exploding?

17. Reactions, the grief of Dima’s wife? The boys, Anna and her pregnancy and her reaction?

18. Back in London, the family safe? The failure of the mission?

19. Perry visiting Hector, Hector and his cooking, the story of his son and being in jail for drug dealing? The gift of the gun, Hector examining it, finding the list of the accounts?

20. The ending of the film – not showing any vindictive retribution or arrests? The people moving over London Bridge – and echoes of Perry’s lecture about T.S.Eliott and the
Waste Land and society at the time, the crowds of people, discontent and corruption?

21. A satisfying Le Carre experience?