Red Joan

Poster for Red Joan

Academy Award winner Judi Dench (All Is True, Philomena) and Sophie Cookson take on the complex persona and legacy of Joan Stanley, the seemingly demure physicist who was also a long-serving British spy for the KGB. Loosely inspired by the biography of British KGB agent Melita Norwood, Red Joan reminds us that spies are not always shadowy, nefarious figures. Sometimes, they are the old lady next door.

The year is 2000. Stanley (Dench) is a retired scientist living in a London suburb when she is arrested for crimes committed many years ago. We flash back to 1938 when young Joan (Cookson) is a new student at Cambridge, where a chance encounter with Sonya (Tereza Srbova, Eastern Promises), an alluring fellow student, draws her into a circle of politicized youths supporting the Republicans in Spain and the Soviet dream of a classless society. Joan falls for Sonya’s brother Leo (Tom Hughes), a dashing idealist in search of adventure. When the Second World War begins, Joan goes to work for Max (Stephen Campbell Moore, The Lady in the Van) at a top-secret British intelligence project of great interest to Leo. Joan is soon facing several difficult choices: between national loyalties, between belief systems, between men. Somewhere in all this, she will also discover her tremendous potential.

Lindsay Shapero’s crisply structured script darts between the elder Joan’s interrogations and the younger Joan’s life of secrets and jag­ged alliances. She is never certain whom to trust—and we might not be certain if we can trust her. But Joan’s fascinating story vali­dates Jean Renoir’s timeless adage: “Everyone has their reasons.”

“A taut old-school thriller with a modern heroine.” (Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter)

“Lindsay Shapiro has captured an intriguing piece of hidden history, showcasing women’s strengths and the overlooked roles they played during the world’s most turbulent times of war.” (Tiffany Tchobanian, Film Threat)