FAREWELL
aka L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL

Year: 2009
USA: NeoClassics Films
UK: The Works UK Distribution
Cast: Emir Kusturica, Guillaume Canet, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Oleksii Gorbunov, Dina Korzun, Philippe Magnan, Niels Arestrup, Fred Ward, David Soul, Willem Dafoe, Evgenie Kharlanov, Valentin Varetsky
Director: Christian Carion
Country: France
Language: French (English subtitles)
USA & UK: 113 mins
USA Rated: Unrated
UK Certificate: 12A contains strong language
USA Release Date: 23 July 2010 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 29 April 2011 (Limited Release)


Synopsis

Engaging, emotional and riveting, FAREWELL is based on the astonishing true story. An intricate and highly intelligent thriller, the film uncovers a little known historical and crucial espionage mission from the 1980s, and concerns an ordinary man thrust into the biggest theft of Soviet information of the Cold War.

Directed by Christian Carion, the Academy Award® nominated filmmaker of JOYEUX NÖEL (MERRY CHRISTMAS), FAREWELL begins in 1981, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. US/Soviet relations are at their lowest point in more than a decade. A French businessman based in Moscow, Froment, (French director Guillaume Canet - TELL NO ONE), makes an unlikely connection with Grigoriev, (Palme d'Or and Golden Bear winner Emir Kusturica, UNDERGROUND) a senior KGB officer disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev. Grigoriev begins passing Froment highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the US.

Torn between the fear of putting his wife (Alexandra Maria Lara - THE READER) and children in a perilous situation and the desire to know more, Froment brings the documents to the French government.

Soon, the flow of information reaches the White House and brings the Soviet regime to the edge of collapse, forcing the KGB to escalate its search for the leak, and placing the two men and their families in extreme danger.

Official Selection 2009 Toronto and Telluride Film Festival - 2010 Seattle International Film Festival. Winner, Special Mention, Audience Prize, 2010 COLCOA Film Festival