New British film Operation Mincemeat is the extraordinary story of two intelligence officers who changed the course of World War II. They saved tens of thousands of lives and helped break Hitler’s deadly grip on Europe by recruiting the skills of the most unlikely of secret agents - a dead man.
The film is set in 1943, with the Allies determined to launch an all-out assault on Sicily in a bid to weaken the Nazi’s stranglehold on occupied Europe. But they face an almost impossible challenge - how to protect their massive invading force from potential massacre.
It falls to the two intelligence officers Ewen Montagu - played by Colin Firth - and Charles Cholmondeley - played by Matthew Macfayden - who dream up an inspired and improbable disinformation strategy. Their idea is to fool Nazi Germany into thinking their plan is to invade Greece and Sardinia instead - by dressing up the corpse of a homeless man as a Royal Marine and planting bogus documents on him that point towards the fake invasion.
