Secrets of State

2008
Secrets of State
6.3| 1h40m| en| More Info
Released: 20 December 2008 Released
Producted By: France 2 Cinéma
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.secretdefense-lefilm.com/
Synopsis

In France, terrorist groups and intelligence agencies battle in a merciless war everyday, in the name of radically opposed ideologies. Yet, terrorist and secret agents lead almost the same lives. Condemned to secrecy, these masters of manipulation follow the same methods. Alex and Al Barad are two of them. The former is the head of the D.G.S.E.'s (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, the French equivalent of the CIA or the MI6) counter-terrorism unit while the latter reigns over a terrorist network, and both fight using the most ruthless of weapons: human beings.

... View More
Stream Online

The movie is currently not available onine

Director

Producted By

France 2 Cinéma

Trailers & Images

Reviews

albert9999 Contains spoilers. This movie is not very french at all. It is a rather poor attempt to transfer the ideology of some US-Secret-Service-flicks to french cinema. The movie consists of a mechanical subsequence of disgusting out-of-law practices of some secret-service-maniacs and some crazy guys that are not any better than the Secret-Service guys. The director tries hard to convince the viewer, that things work that way in reality and that its good that way, i.e. co-workers can be tortured any time just because of their religion - you never know. Women are shown as sexual objects and abuse is not only part of the game but it is the game. What makes this movie disgusting is that the directors don't crititze thiese practices, but they advertise it. They show what they think - their own narrow-minded fear driven moral.Plot is poor too: The movie starts with a girl that doesn't pass an exam at university and is then consoled by another student. Surprise surprise, the co-student is an undercover recruiter and his boss blackmails the girl into becoming an agent (as a student she earned her money as a prostitute). She then has to get into sexual intercourse with a terrorist to find out about his plans to release Vx-Gas in Paris. The second storyline is about a french guy that has to deal with drugs to finance his mothers apartment. He is caught and brought to prison. To avoid sexual intercourse with other inmates he is forced to join the local islamistic-group in prison and gets radicalized by them (some hugs, a bit of meat and some isolation do the job). He is picked by the terrorist to be the one to release the Vx-Gas in the metro of Paris. After some luggage swapping in some airports the girl stops the guy in the metro and the ending credits say: Since 2001 french intelligence could prevent 15 attacks in France.
kosmasp This is a very bleak and very well acted movie. It's about the war on terror, but has quite a few other elements to it. You will have more "fun" with the movie, if you read as little as possible about the story of the movie.Just be aware that the movie is a thriller and has a woman as a central character. It's morally moving on a thin ground, but this is what makes this movie really great. It kept me on my toes guessing, what will happen next. The performances are great and even if you dislike some characters, they are still very engaging and the movie might have some points, you might over think your views.
a_fry Does anyone know if the dog death scene was live (actual) footage of a dog being gassed or was that dog an amazing actor? I cannot find any information on this, and it was suggested in a previous comment that the dog death scene was actual terrorist footage. It would upset me to think that animal cruelty / the portrayal of terrorists performing animal cruelty is something that Canadian film distribution companies find it okay to support even if the film isn't made in Canada. The film centers on a very touchy subject, but that scene is not one I am going to forget easily. I found this just another example of horrific things accomplished by terrorists in the world, and replaying it whether in a film or on television just amplifies the effect they wish to portray to us "infidels".
GUENOT PHILIPPE That's the most wonderful and convincing film ever made about french Intelligence Services - DGSE - the equivalent of the CIA, MI 6 or MOSSAD. A rough, sharp, accurate and awful programmer which tells the story of ordinary people who are manipulated by their own "managers" in order to become decoy themselves. Before being wasted, in the name of the National Security.It made me puke. But so realistic.Lanvin is terrific as a cold blooded, ruthless supervisor who doesn't hesitate to sacrifice his own recruits, the rookies. As his character says in the movie: "Agents are not human beings but weapons..."No comment.Simon Abkarian is also delightful as a machiavellian terrorist. In this film, many things are revealed about Intellingence horrible proceedings, as well as terrorists networks.It's the first movie made about that subject since Frederic Schoenderffer's AGANTS SECRETS, in 2004.