"Damascus Cover" opens in Germany at the precise moment of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November, 1989. But the action then shifts to Damascus, which is called in the film "the oldest inhabited city in the world." It is in Damascus that a dangerous game of espionage ensues with double crossing continuing to the very end of the film.
The term "double" is an apt way to describe the entire film. The protagonist has two names, Ari Ben-Sion and Hans Hoffman. The latter is his cover as an agent for the Mossad. In his dangerous mission, Ari is tasked with extirpation of Israeli insiders in Damascus whose lives the Mossad wants to save.
The film included a mustache-twirling villain named Suleiman Sarraj, who is head of the Mukhabarat intelligence agency in Syria. There is a romantic story that unfolds between Ari and Kim, a photo-journalist from California. But the name "Kim" should alert viewers to one of the most notorious names in the history of espionage: Kim Philby. Like so many of the characters in this film, this Kim is also playing a dangerous game of doubles.
In the final stretch of the film, the double crossing and multiple layers of the film became so convoluted that it was difficult to follow the action. SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS: It was maddening and perplexing to never have an explanation of the senseless killing of the character "Salma" by the character who went by the name of Sabri Al-Alazar. Once again, Al-Alazar, who was supposed to be the "Angel" turned out to be another phony. So, why did he feel compelled to shoot Salma?
Overall, this well-performed film was hamstrung by under-developed characters and unexplained plot strands. It never conveyed a substantial political or historical message about the perpetual strife in the Middle East. And, above all, it left the viewer puzzled and disappointed in characters who either drop out of the film or drop dead without satisfactory explanations.
The term "double" is an apt way to describe the entire film. The protagonist has two names, Ari Ben-Sion and Hans Hoffman. The latter is his cover as an agent for the Mossad. In his dangerous mission, Ari is tasked with extirpation of Israeli insiders in Damascus whose lives the Mossad wants to save.
The film included a mustache-twirling villain named Suleiman Sarraj, who is head of the Mukhabarat intelligence agency in Syria. There is a romantic story that unfolds between Ari and Kim, a photo-journalist from California. But the name "Kim" should alert viewers to one of the most notorious names in the history of espionage: Kim Philby. Like so many of the characters in this film, this Kim is also playing a dangerous game of doubles.
In the final stretch of the film, the double crossing and multiple layers of the film became so convoluted that it was difficult to follow the action. SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS: It was maddening and perplexing to never have an explanation of the senseless killing of the character "Salma" by the character who went by the name of Sabri Al-Alazar. Once again, Al-Alazar, who was supposed to be the "Angel" turned out to be another phony. So, why did he feel compelled to shoot Salma?
Overall, this well-performed film was hamstrung by under-developed characters and unexplained plot strands. It never conveyed a substantial political or historical message about the perpetual strife in the Middle East. And, above all, it left the viewer puzzled and disappointed in characters who either drop out of the film or drop dead without satisfactory explanations.