Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Laurence Spellman, Tereza Srbova, Ben Miles, Robin Soans, Kevin Fuller, Stephen Boxer,

The declaration and labelling of being a traitor is one that is arguably fraught with the agony that comes with not being able to present your side of the story to the nation without it being lost in the clamour of calls for your neck, to die at the hands of a public spurred on by mass media and the urging of government to dole out maximum punishment.

A traitor is not always what they may outwardly seem, and to pass off a state secret when it could assure ultimate peace in the world, when the horror of nuclear destruction is balanced out to the point where no one side has the upper hand, where war may still exist but the definitive and critical finality of all life on Earth is postponed and not brought to by bear by humanity’s sacrifice to science.

Inspired by the life and public outing of Melita Norwood, Trevor Nunn’s Red Joan brings the notion of being a traitor to the discussion of cinema in such a way that it asks the viewer to not think of the act in which Ms. Dench’s Joan Stanley is accused as being one of that as a spy but one whose conscious was turned by the greed of the British and American Governments as they closely guarded the secret of nuclear energy and who once Japan had been defeated in World War Two, turned their suspicious eyes on Russia.

Perhaps the most telling scene is not how Joan Stanley was recruited into the arms of betrayal, but the reason why, the news reels showing the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki placing a small but significant moment of understanding on an act which would have far reaching consequences, not just in the aftermath of post-world war rhetoric, but in the life of Joan herself.

The film asks subtly if it is better to be a traitor to one’s country, or to one’s ideals, a country after all is only defined in part by boundaries and a set of rules of conduct, an ideal on the other hand is a personal set of values which may be against the thinking of Government, one which is harder to reconcile with should you abandon them. If the cause is just, such as assuring that nuclear warfare does not wipe out humanity, then perhaps being a traitor to the country of your birth, one you may love deeply, is the only cause of action that will keep your conscious clear.

With delightful performances by Sophie Cookson as the young Joan Stanley, Tom Hughes as Leo and Ben Miles as Joan’s son Nick, Red Joan is a quietly determined traditional film, elegant and enduring, but most of all forthright in its conviction of getting to grips with the understanding of the act of treachery. To not understand that personal conscious comes above national disregard is in itself a deceit and one that Red Joan carries off with honour.

Ian D. Hall