Spies - Traitors, Heroes or Passé?
6.30pm, Saturday 28 May, Calvert 22
Sergei Kostin, Russia’s definitive spy writer and a charmingly witty speaker, will talk on the double life of espionage in film and in history - are spies traitors or idealistic heroes? Or is the public's fascination with secret agents at an end now that we have Wikileaks?
Farewell, the film based on Kostin’s book Bonjour Farewell and starring Emir Kusturica, is out in UK cinemas now and centres around a real life KGB affair, described by Ronald Reagan as ‘one of the most important espionage cases of the 20th Century.
Sergei Kostin has published several non-fiction books on the Cold War and espionage, such as, The Man behind the Rosenbergs, published in English by Enigma Books in 2004, and a series of spy thrillers revolving around his hero Paco Arraya, including Paris Weekend, available in English translation, and his latest work The Death of a White Mouse, which has just come out in Russia to great acclaim.
Sergei Kostin will offer his thoughts on the status and public appeal of the 21st Century spy against the backdrop of gallery Calvert 22’s exhibition Practice of Everyday Life - Young Artists From Russia.
Books by Sergei Kostin will be available in Russian and English. Read more about Kostin here.
Email rmf@academia-rossica.org to reserve a place.
Calvert 22, 22 Calvert Avenue, E2 7JP www.calvert22.org
Farewell is showing this week at cinemas in Oxford, Cambridge, Southhampton and Exeter.