292. Tracking Edith; movie review

TRACKING EDITH
Cert PG
92 mins
BBFC advice: Contains references to self-harm, discriminatory language

Last year, I had the pleasure of interviewing author Andrew Lownie at the Derby Book Festival about Stalin's Englishman - The Lives Of Guy Burgess.
It was enlightening and Andrew was entertaining in his insight into The Cambridge Five - the most famous spy ring the world has ever known.
He talked knowledgeably about Burgess and his co-conspirators, Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross.
However, the woman, who I now know to be the key recruiter, Edith Tudor-Hart, was not mentioned.
Documentary director Peter Jungk is the great nephew of Tudor-Hart, who died in 1973, and now seeks to piece together her fascinating life.
It transpires that she was an immigrant from Austria whose marriages were failures but whose affairs led her to espionage.
Tracking Edith chronicles her life as best it can despite there being very few images of her and not one second of video footage.
Jungk's advantage is that he has family access to Tudor-Hart's 100-year-old brother (although I wasn't left convinced that he was telling the whole truth) and his son, among others.
He speaks to academics in the UK, Germany and Russia to try to resolve the puzzle of why she did not gain the notoriety of the Cambridge Five despite the intelligence services being aware of her.
For anyone with an interest in 20th century European history, Jungk's film is fascinating, not least because much of its content is something of a revelation.
To delve even deeper, Jungk explores archives in Russia and Vienna as well as the UK to mixed success.
Interestingly, he might have been successful if he had asked for the KGB records about her shortly after the collapse of communism.
However, the policy of glasnost has been quietly forgotten under the Putin regime which chooses not to divulge the secrets of the past - particularly to foreigners.
Nevertheless, there is plenty here to evidence a scandal and to leave the question hanging - why did the authorities not do more to punish Edith Tudor-Hart for treason?

Reasons to watch: The unheralded key player to Britain's greatest spy scandal
Reasons to avoid: Its contributors are forced to speculate over important details

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 8/10

Director quote - Peter Jungk: "I am keen that all age groups watch the film, both people who are interested in the history of the 20th century and those interested in photography, espionage or psychiatry."

The big question - Why did the authorities never charge Edith Tudor-Hart?

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