The Operative (2019)

Directed by: Yuval Adler | 116 minutes | action, drama | Actors: Diane Kruger, Martin Freeman, Cas Anvar, Rotem Keinan, Lana Ettinger, Yoav Levi, Yohanan Herson, Rita Bäde, Annette Atzpodien, Daniel Wandelt, Julia Schneider, Mohsen Azimi, Mehdi Mosadekpur

For the spy thriller ‘The Operative’, directed by Yuval Adler (‘Bethlehem’, ‘The Secrets We Keep’), it is important to stay focused. The slow build-up and the sometimes confusing flashbacks make it a challenging viewing experience. Certainly not an action à la ‘Jason Bourne’ or ‘Mission: Impossible’, but more a psychological character sketch of the spy Rachel Cullin recruited by British/Jewish Mossad agent Thomas (Martin Freeman), played very credibly by Diane Kruger.

After a cryptic phone call (‘My father is dead. Again.’) she seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Mentor Thomas is sent from Germany by Israeli intelligence to trace her steps. It’s up to him to find out if she’s a threat to the mission. Thomas is torn as he must simultaneously protect her from the higher ranks of the Mossad, who want to victimize his protégé.

‘The Operative’ is the film adaptation of the book ‘The English Teacher’ by Yiftach Reicher Atir, himself a Brigadier General of Intelligence in the Israeli army. Yiftach thus speaks from experience in his description of the spy. Rachel is someone who is human, with a whole spectrum of different emotions. Not a superhero, but more of a Carrie Mathison type from “Homeland”.

During her first long-term mission in Tehran, she falls in love with her ‘victim’ Farhad, who runs a large electronics company. After her second mission, her loyalty to the Mossad wanes. The longer she is in the ‘world’, the more she thinks about the bad and the good of her actions. As mentioned, her emotions get the upper hand.

Diane Kruger knows how to highlight the different moods, sometimes insecure, sometimes determined and dogged. She’s more of a John Le Carré spy than a James Bond cast. Furthermore, with a plausible role of Cas Anwar (Farhad Razavi), the film as a whole falls short. Martin Freeman doesn’t really stand out in his role, it remains mediocre, and the so-called friendship between him and Rachel also ‘hangs’ a bit. How and why was Rachel the right woman to recruit? What are her talents, does she fit in this role? And what exactly is the conflict between Iran and Israel, the reason by which the spy is sent on the road? That all remains unclear and that makes the film -literally- a bit unfinished.

It’s a bit strange to believe that a fairly ordinary English teacher, multilingual but not fluent in Hebrew, spends so long undercover in Iran and gets things done there. After almost two hours of watching you feel a bit robbed at the end and that could have been prevented with a clearer script. ‘The Operative’ is convincing as Rachel’s psychoanalysis, but lacks too many elements to be referred to as a spy thriller.