''The Little Drummer Girl'' is a 1984 American

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

George Roy Hill George Roy Hill (December 20, 1921 – December 27, 2002) was an American film director. He is most noted for directing such films as ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' (1969) and ''The Sting'' (1973), both starring Paul Newman and Robert Re ...

and adapted from the 1983 novel of the same name by

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

. It starred

Diane Keaton Diane Keaton ('' née'' Hall, born January 5, 1946) is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Gl ...

Yorgo Voyagis Yorgo Voyagis ( el, Γιώργος Βογιατζής, Giorgos Vogiadzis ; born 6 December 1945) is a Greek actor. Career as an actor Voyagis' film debut was in Michael Cacoyannis's ''Zorba the Greek'' (1964). He reappeared three years later in ...

Klaus Kinski Klaus Kinski (, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski 18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991) was a German actor, equally renowned for his intense performance style and notorious for his volatile personality. He appeared in over 130 film roles in a c ...

and

Thorley Walters Thorley Swinstead Walters (12 May 1913 – 6 July 1991) was an English character actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedy film roles such as in ''Two-Way Stretch'' and '' Carlton-Browne of the FO''. Early life Walters was born in Tei ...

. The film received divided reviews among critics.

Plot

Set in Europe and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, the plot follows the

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

's clandestine attempt to flush out a

PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and s ...

bomber named Khalil. To neutralize Khalil, they first kidnap (and later kill) his brother who is on a lecture tour, speaking to audiences in a ski mask about the profound suffering and losses of

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

under

military occupation Military occupation, also known as belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the effective military control by a ruling power over a territory that is outside of that power's sovereign territory.Eyāl Benveniśtî. The international law ...

. Charlie, an

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine ...

American actress working in London, has been lured to Greece on the pretense of shooting a wine commercial. There she meets and is seduced by Joseph, who tricks her into believing he is the masked man she met in the UK. She is kidnapped to a house of the Israeli Mossad (set up the fake commercial gig) to be recruited there, and be convinced that they too want peace and end the mutual killing. Monitored and manipulated thus, Charlie proves to be capable, acting well in the Mossad's narrative, and then arrives to a Palestinian resistance headquarters in a bombed-out city, whose leader Tayeh, though unsure of it, sends her on to a desert guerrilla maneuvers training camp. Tayeh clarifies that the PLO are not anti-Semitic, but anti-Zionist, and advances her to the next assignment. Now as double agent, under the Israeli Mossad cover, Charlie impersonates the dead man's girlfriend, she connects with a man she deduces is Khalil. They set up an exploding briefcase that has its bomb signature, properly wrapped with coil of wire. As Charlie delivers the briefcase to the "peacenik" target, Professor Minkel, the Mossad, who have been monitoring the situation, have the briefcase whisked away by a man in a bomb suit. Charlie returns to Khalil, and they drive away after the large building explosion that she knows is a

false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...

event, harming no one. Although the evening news report casualties to fool Khalil, he is not easily disarmed, fails to fall asleep as planned, yet he grows quite suspicious of unusual silence around their country refuge. Khalil removes the batteries from Charlie's portable radio that contains a tracker and secret button for signaling when he falls asleep. Alerted, Joseph and others of the Mossad team move in to kill Khalil, as Mossad agents kill other PLO recruiting agents. All of the Palestinian guerrillas are destroyed and engulfed by flames from jet bombers. In an Israeli hospital, Charlie is physically unharmed but emotionally wrecked, feeling betrayed because she only wanted to help Palestinians and end the killing. Ultimately, the Israeli Mossad exploited her to slaughter every Palestinian she met. Eventually she returns to acting in the UK but, too broken, walks off stage. Joseph is there and tells Charlie his real name, restates that he is finished with killing and does not know what is right and wrong, but he loves her. She says she is dead. They walk off together into the night.

Cast

as Charlie *

as Joseph *

as Martin Kurtz *

Sami Frey Sami Frey (born Samuel Frei; 13 October 1937) is a French actor of Iranian Jewish descent. Among the films he starred in are '' En compagnie d'Antonin Artaud'' (1993), in which he portrays French poet and playwright Antonin Artaud, and '' Bande ...

as Khalil *

Michael Cristofer Michael Cristofer (born January 22, 1945) is an American actor, playwright and filmmaker. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for ''The Shadow Box'' in 1977. From 2015 to 2019, he played the role of Phillip ...

as Tayeh * Eli Danker as Litvak * Ben Levine as Dimitri *

Jonathan Sagall Jonathan Sagall ( he, יהונתן סגל; born April 23, 1959) is a Canadian-born Israeli actor, director, producer and screenwriter.Juliano Mer Juliano Mer-Khamis ( he, ג'וליאנו מר ח'מיס; ar, جوليانو مير خميس; born Juliano Khamis; 29 May 19584 April 2011) was an Israeli/Palestinian actor, director, filmmaker, and political activist of Jewish and Palestinian ...

as Julio * Sabi Dorr as Ben * Doron Nesher as David * Smadar Brener as Toby * Shoshi Marciano as Rachel * Philipp Moog as Aaron *

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy, The Illuminatu ...

as Al *

David Suchet Sir David Courtney Suchet''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial '' Oppenh ...

as Mesterbein *

as Commander

Response

The film opened to mixed reviews from critics. ''People Magazine'' (U.S., Vol.22 No.7) began their review: "Diane Keaton will be a long time living down this film." The ''New York Times'' said, "Everybody connected with the film behaves as if he were hanging onto the tail of a tiger and can't let go. They desperately clutch the material but never tame it." James Sanford in the April 9, 2004, ''Kalamazoo Gazette'', referred to the film as an "Underrated thriller with a typically solid Keaton performance ... 3/5". ''The Little Drummer Girl'' currently holds a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on seven reviews.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Little Drummer Girl 1980s spy thriller films 1984 films American political thriller films American spy thriller films Films about actors Films about the Mossad Films based on works by John le Carré Films directed by George Roy Hill Films scored by Dave Grusin Films set in England Films set in West Germany Films set in Greece Films set in Munich Films set in Palestine (region) Films set in the Middle East Films shot in Greece Warner Bros. films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films