Operation Cicero

This is an interesting spy film, based on a true story. The storyline is solid and the acting excellent. Grab the popcorn and prepare to be entertained!

ITN keeps releasing foreign war movies this time from Turkey with this spy thriller movie that they have again only dubbed only. The only scenes that seemed not dubbed are the one with whoever they got to do a Winston Churchill impression in the movie which is about only one scene it seems. The main antagonist Nazi in this is so cartoonish and over the top. Also this movie makes it's female characters out to be weak, helpless damsels. And the ending is ridiculous and sappy, unrealistic.

This 2019 Turkish film was dubbed into English by itn for U.S. audiences. It is largely based on the actual events surrounding the Kosovar Albanian Elyesa Bazna, who, during World War II, became a spy for the German SD Security Service representative in Ankara in 1943 and 1944 while serving as a valet, driver and guard for the British Ambassador to Turkey. Bazna illicitly photographed secret documents in the Ambassador's possession and passed them to the Germans for cash. Some of these documents were of great potential value to the German war effort and some were reportedly shown to Hitler himself, but many were apparently too vague to be useful. In any case, Operation Cicero is a classic spy story with sneaking into offices and brief cases. photographing secret documents, rolls of film being passed for cash, car chase scenes, British attempts to find the spy, etc.. The film is shot in Turkey so the sets and props are as realistic as can be had anywhere. The film largely follows the wartime espionage activity of Bazna as it is known from the existing sources for most of the film, but takes a few fanciful turns towards the end for dramatic purposes. The acting is as credible as it can be with Turkish actors playing German and English roles, and the cinematography and sound are well done. At the end of the film, there is a dramatic scene where it is reveled that Bazna was actually a triple agent working directly for Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) to carefully orchestrate the success of the Overlord operation and the defeat of Germany through surgical editing and doctoring of the British documents by the Turkish Security Service before Bazna turned them over to the Germans. I'll leave it to historians to critique this revisionist premise, but the fact that Bazna was sentenced by Turkish authorities to prison time for passing counterfeit currency after the war (he was paid partly with counterfeit British notes by the Germans during the war) seems to raise questions about just how valuable the Turkish government viewed his activities. The DVD itself is deficient in that although the audio track was dubbed into English, no attempt was made to translate the Turkish on-screen texts explaining the times and locations at the start of scenes and other explanatory material. Otherwise the film is fairly easy to follow and is an entertaining way to familiarize modern audiences with the famous spy "CICERO."

Still, excellent, I think, take on a piece of--most likely--evidently--critical, pivotal, essential, WWII actions, counteractions, espionage, counterespionage, spies, double spies, that, like many, many, seemingly forgotten other actions, ones etc., secured the allied forces overall victory in Europe.

Good actors, pictures, music and story based on real facts.

NOT in English as stated in the description.

such unrealistic plot.. not convincing acting...

Excellent