Another Country

An elite English boarding school in the thirties. Guy Bennett is clever, sardonic and homosexual, and wants to reach the top of the school hierarchy. His friend Judd is a communist who rejects the whole order. Bennett's exclusion is built as the beginning of his later betrayal of his country. Marek Kanievska directed, from Julian Mitchell's play. Rupert Everett plays Bennett, Colin Firth plays Judd. The model for the character is real: Guy Burgess of the Cambridge group who spied for the Soviet Union. The argument is direct: the exclusion produced by the class system and school hierarchy also determines political choice. Betrayal is shown as a personal reckoning before it is an ideology. Everett had played the role on stage; the film launched the screen careers of both leads. The cinematography and use of location sit close to the English heritage film, while the content argues the opposite of that tradition. Who it is for: viewers who like English period drama and the history of espionage. Who it is not for: anyone after pace; the film stays almost entirely inside the school and its conversations.