Jennie Rooney's novel RED JOAN, based on the true story of British physicist Melita Norwood, unmasked as the KGB's longest serving British spy in 1999 at age 87, is transferred to the screen by Lindsay Shapero and under the direction of Trevor Nunn the story becomes a time lapse chronicle of the young Joan acting out her convictions and the elderly Joan facing trial for those acts.
Very briefly, Joan Stanley (Judi Dench as the elder Joan, Sophie Cookson as the young Joan), a physicist in the 1903s, becomes employed as a British government civil servant and works with Professor Max Davies (Stephen Campbell Moore) and together they work on the concept of physics that deals with creating the atomic bomb. She is 'courted ' by her friend Sonja (Tereza Srbova) and her brother Leo (Tom Hughes), supporters of the Soviet party, and is convinced to share the information about the making of the bomb with Stalin's Russia - partly because Joan hypothetically believes all powerful countries should have access to the A bomb in order to maintain equality and prevent abuse of the bomb in the manner the US used in the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mixed with love affairs and fear Joan transfers the secret information to Soviet Russia, and her secrecy lasts until 1999 when MI5 agents arrest her. The film opens with contemporary time and then flashes back and forth to the 30s and 40s in a manner that makes the story credible.
An excellent cast, especially Dench and Cookson, brings this story to life and the impact, whether you agree with the premise or not, makes the film absorbing. G
Very briefly, Joan Stanley (Judi Dench as the elder Joan, Sophie Cookson as the young Joan), a physicist in the 1903s, becomes employed as a British government civil servant and works with Professor Max Davies (Stephen Campbell Moore) and together they work on the concept of physics that deals with creating the atomic bomb. She is 'courted ' by her friend Sonja (Tereza Srbova) and her brother Leo (Tom Hughes), supporters of the Soviet party, and is convinced to share the information about the making of the bomb with Stalin's Russia - partly because Joan hypothetically believes all powerful countries should have access to the A bomb in order to maintain equality and prevent abuse of the bomb in the manner the US used in the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mixed with love affairs and fear Joan transfers the secret information to Soviet Russia, and her secrecy lasts until 1999 when MI5 agents arrest her. The film opens with contemporary time and then flashes back and forth to the 30s and 40s in a manner that makes the story credible.
An excellent cast, especially Dench and Cookson, brings this story to life and the impact, whether you agree with the premise or not, makes the film absorbing. G