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DVD Review: In “The Spy,” People Think War Is Not About Them But It Always Is And You Must Choose Sides

Updated on Leave a Comment on DVD Review: In “The Spy,” People Think War Is Not About Them But It Always Is And You Must Choose Sides


 

Sonja Wigert is a diva and star in Stockholm when WW2 breaks out, rapidly getting attention from the Nazi officer Josef Terboven. She’s then recruited by Swedish intelligence as a spy, but Terboven makes her spy on the Swedes.

Ingrid Bolsø Berdal stars as Norwegian born actress Sonja Wigert in this dramatized bio of her work as a spy during World War II and the subsequent loss of her acting and singing career in the process. The film is a well-constructed story of Wigert, singled out as a prospective spy for the Swedish government because her career and contacts with Germans during the occupation of Norway placed her in a unique position to gain information regarding any proposed invasions of Sweden.

The plot that pulls her in is carefully woven and tightened about her though her only concern was promoting her career and snagging the prize role in an upcoming Nazi film, “Else.” When her father is arrested, the Nazi plan pulls her in and though she has carefully ignored the terrible occupation of her country, thinking that had nothing to do with her, she is finally forced to choose sides.

This film is very well done. It’s sexy and suggestive of the vulgarity of the German officers but is actually only suggestive. Wigert is sexy and she uses that to sidestep her way through the German hierarchy but the details are left to our imaginations for the most part. I had never heard about Sonja Wigert and had to look her up and sure enough, there was some smidgen of information about her to be found. And the reason for so little? She ended up sacrificing her career as she made the appearance of being a German sympathizer and the Norwegian and Swedish audiences turned away from her. In the end, she lost everything, including the man she loved who, unbeknownst to her, was spying for another country. As Wigert’s Swedish contact remarks early in the film: “Stockholm was full of spies, from a variety of countries.”

“The Spy” also features Alexander Scheer, Rolf Lassgard, and Damien Chapell. It is tense but beautiful. The music and settings lend to the dramatic images and the costumes are lovely and so spot-on for the period. Sonja Wigert died in 1980 but the details of her work during the war were not released until 2005.

 

Available on DVD and Digital HD June 29th

 

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Mildred Austin

I can remember being a girl fascinated by the original CINDERELLA and trying to understand that the characters weren’t REAL?? But how was that possible? Because my mom was a cinema lover, she often took me with her instead of leaving me with a babysitter. I was so young in my first film experiences, I would stare at that BIG screen and wonder “what were those people up there saying?” And then as a slightly older girl watching Margaret O’Brien in THE RED SHOES, I dreamed of being a ballerina. Later, in a theatre with my mom and aunt watching WUTHERING HEIGHTS, I found myself sobbing along with the two of them as Katherine and Heathcliff were separated forever. I have always loved film. In college in the ’60s, the Granada in Dallas became our “go-to” art theater where we soaked up 8 ½, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, WILD STRAWBERRIES and every other Bergman film to play there. Although my training is in theatre and I have acted and directed in Repertory Theatre, college and community theatre, I am always drawn back to the films.

I live in Garland and after being retired for 18 years, I have gone back to work in an elementary school library. I am currently serving as an Associate Critic for John Garcia’s THE COLUMN, an online theatre magazine and I see and review local community theatre shows for that outlet. I’m excited to have the opportunity to extend my experiences now to film and review for IRISH FILM CRITIC. See you at the movies - my preferred seat is back row!