With Russian spies making headlines, there couldn’t be a more appropriate time to open “Farewell,” a drama, the opening credits inform, “based on events that led to the downfall of the Soviet empire.”
It’s 1981, the Cold War is in full force and Ronald Reagan is in the White House.
In Moscow, a disenchanted KGB officer is passing secret documents to a Frenchman. All the Russian asks for in return is a Sony Walkman, a book of French poetry, music cassettes by Queen and a bottle of cognac.
The globe-trotting “Farewell,” directed by Christian Carion, starts slowly but picks up steam as it goes along. The final half-hour is suspenseful to the max.
Carion gets excellent performances from Emir Kusturica as the Russian and Guillaume Canet as the Frenchman. Each is a filmmaker in his own right — Canet’s directorial résumé includes the thriller “Tell No One” and Kusturica’s lists the Serbian black comedies “Underground” and “Black Cat, White Cat.”
For comic relief, there’s Fred Ward as Reagan, who seems to spend more time watching John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” than running the country.
“I was supposed to do a film with Ford, but it never got made,” Reagan muses. That’s what happens when you put an actor in the White House.