A Perfect Spy

A TV mini-series dramatised by Arthur Hopcraft from the novel by John le Carré, and directed by Peter Smith.

Magnus Pym has disappeared, setting off a massive man-hunt. One of Britain's top intelligence agents, Pym is also searching for his true identity, hidden beneath a lifetime of deception. His quest takes him from his relationship with his con-man father to his betrayal of everything close to him – his wife, his country, even the high-ranking Czech agent whom he befriended. Pursued by his agency and his enemies, Pym must find himself before his hunters find him.

As a young man, Magnus Pym's father Rick was the most influential character in his life. Rick was a raconteur, con-man, thief and black marketeer. From a young age Magnus was included in Rick's schemes, learning how to survive by deceit and lies, but also learning about responsibilities towards those you love. When a university student in Switzerland, Magnus meets the other person who will have the greatest influence in his life, Axel, a Czech refugee. As Magnus enters his career in the British Secret Service, his relationship with Axel and the values he developed in childhood will lead him down his own tragic path of betrayal and loyalty.

Part spy thriller, part mystery, part psychological suspense story, but foremost a love story. A stunning and exquisitely transformed adapation of le Carré's most intriguing and absorbing masterpiece.

Lovers of the Arctic Circle

Los Amantes del Círculo Polar
a film by Julio Medem

A passionate and secret love story narrated by Ana and Otto, from the age of eight until the age of twenty-five. The story begins in 1980, when after school a girl and a boy start to run for different reasons. From that afternoon the lives of Ana and Otto will be intertwined in a single circle that will begin to close seventeen years later, in Finland, on the very edge of the Arctic Circle.

Ana is running away from her mother, denying that her father has died in a car crash. Otto is chasing a football kicked by another boy after school. As they encounter each other with a stare that begins their strange relationship, Ana sees the spirit of her dead father in Otto. At the same moment Otto falls in love with Ana, and she knows it will be forever. At that moment both project a desire for love, the girl for her father and the boy for his mother, and they are both there for each other.

But all things are transient, even love, and Otto's father and mother separate. By chance again, the two children are brought closer still when Olga, Ana's mother and Álvaro, Otto's father meet and a relationship begins. Both parents encourage their children to be like brother and sister but this is not what Ana and Otto want, and the feelings they share, as they become lovers, have to remain hidden and secret.

Ana relates to her life as a string of chance events. Otto sees life as running in a circle – one begins at a certain part of the circle and at the end one reaches the point at which one began. Throughout the film the narrative switches between the two characters: following the perspective of each in flashbacks and current events; illuminating thoughts and motivations; exploring what the events in each life mean to the character. The connections are intricate and complex, the visual storytelling compelling. The film sets forth the premise that random chance is somehow organised – it is chance, but with a destiny, a kind of intention or will.

A stunning, beautiful and unique film about love, our choices in life, and the power of our emotions. It is also a treatise on the nature of fate and coincidence, its recurring metaphors exploring the connections in a cyclic rhythm of destiny.

Love Letter

A film by Shunji Iwai

When I close my eyes...

For Hiroko Watanabe, the passing of two years has not lessened the pain brought by the tragic death of her young fiancé, Itsuki Fujii in a mountain climbing accident. She longs for healing but is unable to let go of his sudden death. Fate intervenes, however, and a single letter she writes to her deceased lover as a whim, sets in motion a chain of events that allows her to discover the untold secrets of their connection.

Following a memorial ceremony for her fiancé, Hiroko looks through his old school yearbook, hoping to find something of him that she can hold onto, which will enable her to let go of the longing she has for him. She copies an address in Otaro, in northern Japan, associated with the name Itsuki Fujii and sends a short letter, asking "How are you?" and telling him "I am fine". Believing the destination to no longer exist and that it will not be delivered, she sends the letter to him 'in heaven'. Her close friend Akiba who has fallen in love with her supports her in this, hoping it will help her to let go.

To her surprise, Hiroko receives a reply and after the exchange of several letters, discovers that her correspondent is a woman with the exactly the same name as her fiancé, and that both male and female Itsuki Fujiis were classmates together in Junior High School. As their letters continue, Itsuki uncovers some hidden truths about herself, her father's death, and her relationship with the shy student with the same name.

Love Letter is a film of exquisite cinematic poetry that explores the subjectivity of memory and the idea of redemption. A very beautiful and moving love story in which two young women, having discovered the connection which binds them, are able then to redeem the past in order to regain their lives in the present.