KEY POINTS:
Rating:
* * * *
Verdict:
Sassy, action-packed, French wartime thriller.
Based on a true story,
The Female Agents
is a tribute to the heroic actions of a group of female Resistance agents who worked for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) created by Winston Churchill during WWII. It centres around Louise (Marceau), a member of the French Resistance, who, soon after her husband's death is recruited by the SOE for an urgent mission to rescue a British geologist who has fallen into German hands while preparing for D-Day.
Working alongside her brother Pierre (Julien Boisselier), Louise puts together an all-female commando unit to infiltrate a Nazi hospital and rescue the geologist before he can be interrogated.
While the beginning is bogged down with detail, it settles into a good pace, adding enough twists to keep us guessing.
The story is told with a sense of the melodramatic rather than chilling reality - but it doesn't spare the violence that went with the territory.
While it has its fanciful moments, the film still makes a serious statement of how incredibly valuable and courageous these women were.
Francesca Rudkin
Cast:
Sophie Marceau, Julie Depardieu
Director:
Jean-Paul Salome
Running time:
114 mins
Rating:
R16 (violence)
Screening:
Rialto