CINEMA: Female Agents

It’s about time the female agents who helped the Allies win the war were acknowledged, and this fascinating film acts as a very fitting tribute to them. It does take some time for the backstory to be put into place, but once all the exposition is over the film fair rattles along with scares, thrills, spills and real suspense.

French resistance fighter Louise (Sophie Marceau) has fled to London to join the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and her very first mission seems straightforward enough; she must return to France disguised as a nurse and retrieve a fallen British agent who is in the hands of the Germans. She is joined by four other female agents but almost from the onset their rescue plan goes awry and so begins a desperate flight through the countryside to get to Nazi Colonel Heindrich (Mortiz Bleibtreu) before he can pass on the information he has gleaned from his captive.

Marceau is amazing as Louise, by turns fragile and vulnerable then hard as steel. But her four companions (Marie Gillain, Deborah Francois, Maya Sansa and Julie Depardieu) are equally as good, each displaying a hidden strength or skill.

The wartime feel of the film is well realised, but it is not the planes, cars or clothes that steal the show here, but the performances of a really rather formidable group of women who put the successful conclusion of their mission before their own safety or well-being.      Dee Pilgrim