Christian Carion, Farewell

After Merry Christmas, his 2005 Oscar-nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, French filmmaker Christian Carion emerges with Farewell, which traces a true World War I story, the 1914 Christmas Day armistice in the trenches, to one of the most important espionage exposes of the 20th century: the case of the KGB officer, code name Farewell, whose leaked documents to the Reagan administration have been cited as one of the pivotal reasons for the eventual collapse of the Iron Curtain and the dissolution of Soviet Russia. Carion discusses the case and why he cast two directors, Emir Kusterica (Underground, Time of the Gypsies) and Guillaume Canet (Tell No One), in the leads; he also explains why he couldn't shoot in Moscow and how Diane Kruger took time from Inglourious Basterds to do a cameo (16 minutes).

•