Film Guide

Female Agents (Les Femmes de l’ombre) is based on real life exploits of Female resistant fighters in France during World War 2. The movie centres around one mission which the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) takes control of. The SOE put together a group of women to partake in a dangerous mission, to rescue a British agent who has valuable information on the impending D-Day landings.

In essence, the entire Allied invasion hangs in the balance. If the Germans find out about D-Day, it will have to be called off, so this mission is conceivably one of the most important of the Second World War.

Of course as with most things in real life, nothing ever goes to plan and the women are forced to adapt to ever increasingly perilous situations that leave then (and us, the viewer) smarting at the chauvinistic attitudes of the SOE and their disposable approach to the female agents lives.

A tightly written and well acted interpretation of history, Female Agents is a gripping story of heroism and sacrifice that deserves to be seen by a wider audience than it is likely to attract.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: R16 – Contains violence & content that may disturb.
Duration: 116 mins.
Genre: War, True Story, Drama.
Director: Jean-Paul Salomé.
Actors: Sophie Marceau, Julie Depardieu, Marie Gillain, Déborah François, Moritz Bleibtreu, Maya Sansa, Julien Boisselier.
Release Date: 22 January, 2009.