"I was a shadow in a man's world. Invisible…but in the end, powerful." In a picturesque village in England, Joan Stanley (Academy Award® winner Dame Judi Dench), lives in contented retirement. Then suddenly her tranquil existence is shattered as she's shockingly arrested by MI5. For Joan has been hiding an incredible past; she is one of the most influential spies in living history… Cambridge University in the 1930s, and the young Joan (Sophie Cookson), a demure physics student, falls intensely in love with a seductively attractive Russian saboteur, Leo. Through him, she begins to see that the world is on a knife-edge and perhaps must be saved from itself in the race to military supremacy. Post-war and now working at a top secret nuclear research facility, Joan is confronted with the impossible: Would you betray your country and your loved ones, if it meant saving them? What price would you pay for peace? Inspired by an extraordinary true story, Red Joan is the taut and emotional discovery of one woman's sacrifice in the face of incredible circumstances. A woman to whom we perhaps all owe our freedom.
Trailer
Reviews
"A good old-fashioned British spy thriller in the scientific mold of Enigma, with a bewitching female heroine (or anti-heroine, if you will) played by the excellent actresses Judi Dench and (as her younger self) Sophie Cookson, Red Joan revisits the incredible real-life spy case of Melita Norwood. It is directed with a strong sense for character by Trevor Nunn, the former director of the Royal Shakespeare Co. whose rare excursions into film include woman-centered works like Hedda, Lady Jane and Twelfth Night: Or What You Will."
Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter
"It was always a challenge to find someone to fill the role of Judi Dench in the past. Sophie Cookson however meets this challenge [...] Dench, as ever, is a ten out of ten in this outing"
Aitziber Polo, El Palomitron
"The film combines the personal with the political in a gripping story of one woman's life- and world-altering decision."
Monica Reid, Far Out Magazine
"This film is a smartly designed, tightly packaged tale of one woman's journey, the choices she makes along the way, and the far reverberating impact they had on history."
