International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

Synopsis

"When I talk about my father, I sometimes feel I'm talking about myself." Clandestine begins with a man's memory of his adulterous father, but the film does not only consist of this fictional storyline. There's a second theme, a documentary history of coded spy messages, traitors, and double agents. At the center of both stories are the so-called number stations in use all over the world. These stations broadcast encoded messages intended for spies embedded deep in hostile territory. Seven spies who were arrested on both sides of the Iron Curtain show us how number stations have played a crucial role in various global conflicts from 1940 to the present. Whereas the male voice-over is emotional and at times confused, the female narrator recounting this espionage history is calm and objective. As they tell the story, directors Gideon C. Kennedy and Marcus Rosentrater show us freely available archive material that they obtained from a dozen online archives. They have woven it into a story of espionage and adultery, communication and miscommunication, and the relativity of good and bad. After all, "Nobody's the bad guy in their own story."