Gavin Hood’s political thriller Official Secrets has been selected to serve as the closing night film at the 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival, which is set to run April 10-23.
Based on the book The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War by Marcia Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell, the IFC Films title stars Keira Knightley as whistle-blower Katharine Gun, a British woman working for the U.K.’s intelligence service monitoring foreign correspondence. Morally distressed by a confidential staff email about coercing small countries to vote for a UN Iraq War resolution, she leaks the email to the British press and, after her identity is revealed, is charged with treason. The cast also includes Matt Smith as journalist Martin Bright, Ralph Fiennes and Rhys Ifans.
Official Secrets will screen April 21 at the Castro Theater, and Hood, Gun and Bright are expected to attend and take part in a Q&A.
“The Bay Area has long championed resistance to injustice, and this extraordinary new film from Gavin Hood — the current master of the thoughtful political thriller — pairs great performances with real-life heroes who try to stop a war that continues to haunt us today,” SFFILM executive director Noah Cowan said Friday in making the announcement. “We are honored to have these exemplars of press freedom and whistle-blower justice in attendance at our closing-night screening and celebrate their courage and tenacity.”
The festival is set to open with the first episode and preview footage from the upcoming Netflix series Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.
March 17 A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Keira Knightley.
