Sundance: 'Ironbark' director Dominic Cooke says his film is on how regular people become heroes when tested
Acclaimed director Dominic Cooke's latest movie 'Ironbark', starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan, and Merab Ninidze, had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 24. In an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) on the sidelines of the event, Cooke opened up about how he thinks the audience might relate to the movie.
"Well, I think there are elements in it that are really universal about friendship," Cooke said. "I mean, to me, essentially, the film is really about how even someone every day can do something really heroic. Because Benedict's character is this regular guy. He's not a spy. And he ends up being involved in something which really has incredible importance.
"And I think sometimes we think of heroic people as people who are in capes or firefighters or soldiers or whatever, all of whom are, and can be heroic," he added. "But a lot of people have that in them and when... they only find out when they're tested. And he was dropped into the situation and that was kind of quite extraordinary."
Here's the official synopsis for the movie, according to the Sundance Institute's official website: "Businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) and prim but warm housewife Sheila (Jessie Buckley) lead a properly quiet English life. When rumblings of a mole in the Soviet Union government reach British intelligence agent Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) and CIA official Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan), Greville is called upon by his country precisely for his ordinariness. He is thrown into the political conflict, and as his efforts to end the Cuban Missile Crisis deepen, he forges an unbreakable bond with his informant, Oleg (Merab Ninidze), that will be put to the ultimate test. Pressured by Sheila’s suspicion of his secrecy and as the Soviets close in on the plot, Greville proves himself not to be ordinary at all."
