Say Hello to the “Farewell” Trailer, With Emir Kusturica as an '80s KGB Defector

Emir Kusturica, the great Serbian director, hops to the other side of the camera to play KGB defector Vladimir Vetrov in the French film "Farewell," from French director Christian Carion.

Starring alongside Kusturica are Guillame Canet as the man who aids Vetrov's counter-spying, Willem Dafoe, Fred Ward, Diane Kruger ("Inglourious Basterds") and David Soul of "Starsky & Hutch" fame.

Here's the official synopsis:

Engaging, emotional and riveting, FAREWELL is an intricate and highly intelligent thriller pulled from the pages of history— about an ordinary man thrust into the biggest theft of soviet information of the Cold War. A piece of history largely unknown until now, which Ronald Reagan called “one of the most important espionage cases of the 20th century.” Directed by Christian Carion, the Academy Award® nominated filmmaker of JOYEUX NÖEL (Merry Christmas), FAREWELL begins in 1981, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. US/Soviet relations are at their lowest point in more than a decade. A French businessman based in Moscow, Pierre Froment, (French director Guillaume Canet, TELL NO ONE), makes an unlikely connection with Grigoriev, (Palme d’Or and Golden Bear winner Emir Kusturica, UNDERGROUND) a senior KGB officer disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev. Grigoriev begins passing him highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the US. Torn between the fear of putting his wife (Alexandra Maria Lara, THE READER) and children in danger and the desire to know more, Froment brings the documents to the French government. Soon, the flow of information reaches the White House and brings the Soviet regime to the tipping point of collapse, forcing the KGB to escalate its search for the leak, and placing the two men and their families in extreme peril.

"Farewell" hits theaters July 23.

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