On the 4th, the film «Garbo. The Spy » directed by Edmon Roch .
Thriller about spies, double agents, secrets and lies, memory and oblivion, made with fragments of Hollywood movies, archive material, interviews and digital effects, whose structure forces us to choose our particular interpretation of the truth of Juan Pujol .
In the words of the director/producer/screenwriter:“We have all the main actors in this extraordinary story. Intelligence expert and novelist Nigel West , who tracked down Pujol's track and took him out of his anonymity in Venezuela. MI5 Intelligence Officer Mark Seaman , who investigated all of Pujol's steps and how he managed to make believe the unbelievable. The journalist Xavier Vinader , who deconstructed his memories with him and helped him remember all the details for months. And Aline Griffith , Countess of Romanones, spy during World War II, who worked for American Intelligence in Spain. The two families of Pujol, the one he had in Spain and the one in Venezuela. And Juan Pujol himself, with his very personal approach to reality. »
Who was Juan Puyol?
Juan Pujol (Barcelona, February 14, 1912 – Caracas, October 10, 1988), self-taught, manager of a chicken farm, hotel concierge, begins to plan his contribution to the "welfare of humanity", and decides to offer himself to the British to "give them a hand", but his naive plan fails. Instead of losing heart and giving up, he manages to convince the Nazis that he can spy for them. Surprisingly, the Abwehr (German intelligence organization) Trust him and hire him. Codename:Arabal .
After a series of adventures, Pujol is located by British Intelligence, which makes him a double agent. Codename:Garbo . From London, he makes the Third Reich believe that the landing in Normandy is nothing more than a deception strategy, since the real landing will take place in the Pas de Calais.
Thirty years later, an English writer of spy novels, Nigel West, begins to doubt his death, sets out to find him, and locates him in Venezuela, where he has started a new life, has remarried and works as a teacher. of English for the Shell. No one around him knew of his involvement in the war.
Two wars. Both sides. Two families. Two deaths. A man.
GARBO, THE SPY
The Third Reich had Alaric.
The Allies had Garbo.
Both were the most decisive spies of World War II.
Alaric disappeared after the war,
Garbo passed away of malaria in Angola.
But the two were the same man:Juan Pujol
who, thirty years later, was still alive and well in Venezuela...It is the story of “the best actor in the world”.