A Cold War thriller for you this week starring Dirk Bogarde as Sebastian, the eponymous central subject of the film. Sebastian, is a highly skilled, driven, mathematics professor with a bit of a penchant for sleeping around. Whilst in charge of a major British government project decrypting radio traffic between the Soviet Union and its agents and operatives overseas Sebastian falls for one of the decoders. The effect of this liaison lead Sebastian into a complex web of intelligence related intrigue and international politics.

‘Sebastian’, made in 1968, is a film very much of it’s time and that is no more more noticeable in the Cold War setting and the technology that the decoders were having to work with, stuff like punch cards for example. The style of the film is very late 1960’s and the camera-work and editing may look somewhat dated, but the core drama of the film, the story of a man letting his feelings lead him astray, is still gripping.

I think I may have originally seen this film many years ago and I was delighted to find that I could see it again. I hope you enjoy it as well as I did.