Farewell

The French need someone to pick up top secret documents from a Francophile KGB colonel in Moscow, who thinks the USSR has lost its way and needs shaking up. Who better to do it than Pierre, a French electrical engineer living in Moscow with a wife and two young and no spy training? Grigoriev, the KGB colonel seems to have similar disregard for normal professional spy techniques. The French call their new source "Farewell". While the initial information from Farewell is explosive, what the French really want is the list of KGB spies in the West. As more and more people are dragged into the secret it becomes increasingly dangerous for Grigoriev and Pierre and his family, and escaping the USSR becomes the top priority.

The story is very loosely based on real life "Farewell", Vladimir Vetrov.

While sometimes you want to reach out and shake the characters and say "don't be so stupid", on the whole the movie is a competent thriller with the added interest of Pierre and his wife being amateurs but also the human interest of Grigoriev who wants to be paid in French poetry and cassettes of Queen for his teenage son.

(A longer review from the Independent)

Ian's rating 3.5/5
Anne's rating 3/5