Knightley stars as the GCHQ translator who leaked a classified memo to the Observer exposing the US plot to spy on the UN shortly before the 2003 invasion of
Iraq Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun: ‘Truth always matters’“Just because you’re the prime minister doesn’t mean you get to make up your own facts.” So says Keira Knightley’s whistleblower in Gavin Hood’s “based on true events” drama, an on-the-nose revisiting of the run-up to the Iraq war that draws clear parallels with the “alternative facts” rhetoric of modern politics. While US and
UK intelligence agencies conspire to engineer a justification for invasion, GCHQ translator Katharine Gun (whose real-life bravery deserves celebration) follows her conscience and alerts the media to their dirty-tricks campaign, throwing her quiet life into turmoil, putting her work, marriage and freedom at risk.
Related: Keira Knightley: ‘Iraq was the first time I’d been politically engaged’