Novelist Martin Cruz has observed that: "Every age has its operative analogy, a mass interpretation of life. The Italians had the commedia dell' arte's succession of masks; the English during the Restoration saw life as a drama of manners. We seem to have adopted espionage as our analogy, as if, instead of masks, we all now have a second, narrower pair of eyes with which to see ourselves and others."
In this drama, writer and director James Dearden has brought Barry Unsworth's novel to the screen with its wit, sophistication and psychological insights intact. Ben Kingsley plays Pascali, a Turkish spy on a Greek isle in 1908 who for 20 years has faithfully sent reports of suspicious individuals and unusual happenings to the authorities in Constantinople. When an English archaeologist named Anthony Bowles (Charles Dance) arrives on the island, he hires Pascali as an interpreter. Soon the spy finds himself over his head in a sea of intrigue, deceit, and treachery. Although set in an exotic locale in a long ago period of history, this film is totally relevant to today's world of deception, alienation, and ethical confusion.