In
1989, almost the entire world was suddenly optimistic, except the Middle East. The
New World Order seemed cool and doable then, so it is rather ironic to transfer
Howard Kaplan’s cynical 1970s realpolitik espionage novel to the time of
post-Wall euphoria, but it sort of works. Of course, the Syrian government remains
brutally oppressive, so the immediate dangers faced by burned-out Mossad agent
Ari Ben-Sion (cover name Hans Hoffmann) is just as timely and believable as it
ever was, if not more so, in Daniel Zelik Berk’s Damascus Cover (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.
It
is hard to understand why a senior Israeli military intelligence officer would
betray his country, but he did. Ben-Sion’s boss Miki sniffed him out before irreparable
harm could be done, but the whole affair turned up the heat on a highly placed
Israeli source in the Syrian intelligence service (known as “The Angel,” because
the Mossad apparently recycles code names for double agents). It will be
Ben-Sion’s mission to extract him, or possibly a Jewish-Syrian scientist with a
senior position in the Syrian nuclear program. Frankly, his assignment keeps
changing, leaving him increasingly exposed.
Under
his Hoffmann cover, Ben-Sion is posing as a German businessman looking to import
carpets. According to his legend, his father happened to be a SS guard at a
concentration camp, which automatically puts him in good stead with the small
National Socialist expat community given sanctuary by the Assad regime. They in
turn introduce the spy to the feared Sulieman Sarraj, Syria’s newly appointed
chief of the secret police. They are quite an unsavory lot, but as a
consolation, Ben-Sion will also spend some quality time in the Damascus Sheraton
with USA Today photo-journalist Kim
Johnson, at least until he has to start bringing his work home with him.
In
a line that gets revisited, Johnson argues anything is possible in a world in
which the Wall came down. Maybe that even includes the production of a spy
movie sympathetic to the State of Israel. Damascus
Cover is not exactly the film we have been waiting for, but it certainly
portrays Syria in the harshest light. Granted, Ben-Sion and his colleagues play
plenty dirty, but they maintain a sense of honor, while the Syrians are exponentially
more ruthless.
That
starts with Sarraj, played with chilling intensity by Navid Negahban.
Ironically, you can tell Negahban is one of the good guys, because of all the
bad guys he has been willing to play, thereby helping to tell some very
important stories on film, such as The Stoning of Soraya M., American Sniper, and the short Little Brother.
Likewise,
it is great fun to watch the late great John Hurt scheme his way through the
film as Miki. Frankly, seeing that old sly fox persona one more time is a
fitting coda to his legendary career. While the character is underwritten,
Olivia Thirlby does her best to make Johnson smart and alluring. Half the time,
Jonathan Rhys Meyers is terrific, in a cold and twitchy sort of way, during his
scenes of spycraft and agency politics. However, he never really develops a convincing
rapport with Thirlby’s Johnson.
