''Damascus Cover'' is a 2017 political thriller film, directed by Daniel Zelik Berk, from a screenplay by Berk and Samantha Newton. It is based upon the 1977 novel of the same name by Howard Kaplan. It stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Olivia Thirlby,

Jürgen Prochnow Jürgen Prochnow ( ; born 10 June 1941) is a German-American actor. His international breakthrough was his portrayal of the good-hearted and sympathetic U-boat Captain "Der Alte" ("Old Man") in the 1981 war film ''Das Boot''. He is also known f ...

Igal Naor Igal Naor ( he, יגאל נאור; born ) is an Israeli actor, sometimes credited as Yigal Naor. Naor was born in Givatayim, Israel, to Mizrahi Jewish parents from Iraq. He has appeared in the American films ''Munich'', ''Green Zone'' and '' R ...

, Navid Negahban and

John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in ...

. This proved to be Hurt's final film appearance before his death. The film was dedicated to his memory. The film had its world premiere at the

Boston Film Festival Boston Film Festival (BFF) is an annual film festival held in Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It has been held annually since 1984, usually in early September. The Boston Film Festival premiered such notable films as '' The Last Kiss'' ...

on September 23, 2017. It was released on July 20, 2018, by Vertical Entertainment.

Plot

Ari Ben-Sion, an Israeli spy posing as a German businessman named Hans Hoffmann in Berlin in 1989, must get an Israeli spy out of Syria but realizes that he is part of a much bigger plan.

Cast

* Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Ari Ben-Sion / Hans Hoffmann * Olivia Thirlby as Kim Johnson *

as Miki *

as Franz Ludin * Navid Negahban as Suleiman Sarraj *

Wolf Kahler Wolf Kahler (born 3 April 1940) is a German stage, film, television, and voice actor. Since 1975, he appeared in many English language US and UK television and film productions. One of his early roles was Kaiser Wilhelm II in Michael York's ...

as Colonel Ludwig Streicher *

as General Fuad * Selva Rasalingam as Sabri * Neta Riskin as Yael * Tsahi Halevi as Rami Elon * Ben Affan as Mustapha * Herzl Tobey as Ehud * Aki Avni as Shaul * Hassani Shapi as Syrian Trade Minister * Shani Aviv as Rachel

Production

In February 2015, it was announced Jonathan Rhys Meyers,

, Olivia Thirlby,

, and Navid Negahban joined the cast of the film, with Daniel Zelik Berk directing from a screenplay he wrote alongside Samantha Newton, from the novel of the same name by Howard Kaplan. Hannah Leader will serve as a producer on the film.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on September 23, 2017. Shortly after, Vertical Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on July 20, 2018.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 14% based on 22 reviews, and an average rating of 4.2/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gives it a weighted average score of 36 out of 100 based on reviews from 8 critics.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt3457508 2017 films 2017 action thriller films 2017 directorial debut films 2010s mystery thriller films 2010s political thriller films American action thriller films American mystery thriller films American political thriller films Films about the Mossad Films based on American novels Vertical Entertainment films Israeli–Palestinian conflict films Films set in Berlin Films set in Damascus Films set in Israel Films set in Jerusalem Films set in Syria Films set in Tel Aviv Films set in 1989 2010s American films