IFC Films has acquired Official Secrets, a politically charged thriller starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Fest.
The deal is in the $2 million range and is for U.S. rights only.
Directed by Gavin Hood, the film is a timely tale about Katharine Gun, a British whistleblower who leaked documents to the press. Her goal was to expose an illegal U.S.-U.K. spying operation in the lead-up to the Iraq War that she hoped would lead citizens to question the rationale for the invasion.
An intelligence translator, Gun discovered that the governments were trying to strongarm the U.N. Security Counsel members in order to drum up support for deposing Saddam Hussein.
It’s the second Sundance acquisition for IFC Films, which had previously bought Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale before the fest.
