Our Kind of Traitor  ★★½

STELLAN Skarsgard is one of my favourite actors and he again shines as a Russian mafia accountant in Our Kind Of Traitor.

The Swede not only has an incredible range (in recent times, Mama Mia to Nymphomaniac) but a wonderful naturalistic style, honed through his ongoing collaboration with bad boy director Lars von Trier.

Skarsgard first came to my attention in von Trier’s shattering Breaking The Waves in 1996. Lately I also enjoyed him in the black comic-thriller In Order of Disappearance.

In Our Kind Of Traitor he relishes the opportunity to play the larger-than-life Dima who realises his days in organised crime are numbered in Moscow after a fellow accountant and his family are murdered.

Dima secretely decides to trade information with British intelligence in return for asylum for his family, but he needs the unwitting assistance of a patsy to get his message out while not drawing attention.

Enter another very watchable actor,  Ewen McGregor, as Perry, an innocent Englishman abroad struggling to re-ignite the connection with his wife, also played well by Naomie Harris. Unbeknownst to Perry, he is dragged into the international spy negotiations between Dimi and a determined MI5 operative with a personal axe to grind, played by Damien Lewis (Brodie from US television’s Homeland).

English director Susanna  White has been busy in America working on a range of quality television shows (Billions, Masters of Sex, Boardwalk Empire) and this is a very impressive effort using material based on a John le Carre novel.

I gather this isn’t one of his better known works, but the Demi character creation makes me keen to have a read. Every scene featuring the character is electric and leaves the viewer uncertain which way the narrative will unfold.

Unfortunately the film tends to peter out near the end, but it’s well worth the effort until that point.