'Farewell' is a solid story of Soviet espionage

(Not rated, probably PG-13) (113 min.) — The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 wasn't the result of Ronald Reagan's urging alone, although that makes a tidy sound bite for filmmakers dabbling in the era. Director and co-writer Christian Carion digs deeper into the Cold War's demise, focusing on a true-life espionage adventure making politics more personal.

At the dawn of the decade, KGB Col. Sergei Grigoriev (Emir Kusturica) is a loyal soldier losing faith in Soviet leaders. His son Igor (Evgeniy Kharlanov) is like many Russian youths, infatuated with Western culture, especially pop music.

Wanting to ensure a better future for Igor, the colonel begins slipping sensitive Communist Party materials to French engineer Pierre Froment (Guillaume Canet), who forwards them to U.S. intelligence. Grigoriev adopts the code name "Farewell" and refuses to accept any reward for his spying.

Carion presents the story in a fashion that is almost too methodical, without action sequences that a fictional spy yarn would build upon. But there are engrossing performances by Kusturica and Canet — both acclaimed filmmakers in their own right — and interesting famous name- and face-dropping with Fred Ward impersonating Reagan and Philippe Magnan as French Prime Minister Francois Mitterrand. Willem Dafoe and David Soul briefly appear as U.S. intelligence agents.

Farewell is a solid telling of an obscure story and nothing more. The most effective scenes aren't cloak and dagger stuff but passages like Igor daydreaming of becoming a rock star like his idol Freddie Mercury of Queen. In those moments we grasp the allure of Western culture to a new generation tiring of communist repression. And that's why the Wall tumbled down.

Opens Friday at Tampa Theatre only. Shown with English subtitles. B