Red Joan is a 2018 British spy drama film, directed by Trevor Nunn, from a screenplay by Lindsay Shapero. The film stars Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Ben Miles, Nina Sosanya, Tereza Srbova, and Judi Dench.
The film is based on a novel of the same name written by Jennie Rooney, which was itself inspired by the life of Melita Norwood. Norwood worked at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association as a secretary and supplied the Soviet Union with nuclear secrets. The information that Norwood betrayed to the Soviets hastened the pace at which they developed nuclear bomb technology.
Red Joan had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2018 and was released on 19 April 2019, by Lionsgate in the United Kingdom.
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Plot
The young Joan Smith studies physics at Cambridge University. Her Russian Jewish friends Sonya and Leo Galich introduce her to socialists and radical politics. Sonya introduces Leo as her cousin. Joan falls in love with the intense intellectual Leo.
