A Call to Spy trailer: Radhika Apte plays real-life British hero Noor Inayat Khan in WW II espionage thriller

Oscar-nominated director Lydia Dean Pilcher helms the World War II espionage thriller A Call to Spy. Written by Sarah Megan Thomas (who also stars as real life spy Virgina Hall), the film had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June last year. The story revolves around the unsung female spies of Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), who worked to undermine the Nazi regime in France. Stana Katic plays Vera Atkins (also the inspiration behind Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny), who recruits Hall, an American journalist from Baltimore with a wooden leg and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Apte), a wireless officer of Indian descent and a pacifist. [caption id=“attachment_8667301” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Radhika Apte as Noor Inayat Khan | Image from YouTube[/caption] In a 2019 interview , Apte had revealed she met Pilcher during the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, where Apte won the best actress for her bit in the anthology film Madly. Lydia, who served as a jury member at the fest, was casting for A Call to Spy at the time. “But there were so many women who fought just as valiantly. Lydia feels very strongly for them and wants to tell their untold stories. I never thought I’d get an opportunity to portray someone involved with a World War. Being on the set, wearing those costumes, was an experience,” Apte said. She explained that there was a lot of written material on Noor and Pilcher helped the actor find a balance between the written material and her own interpretation. Here is the trailer

Khan was arrested by the Gestapo after she was betrayed by a Frenchwoman. She did escape prison, but was captured again a few hours later. She was sent to the Pforzheim prison in Germany where she was bound by chains and even tortured. She refused to divulge any details of her operation, writes the BBC. In September 1944, Khan along with three more SOE agents were transferred to the Dachau concentration camp and executed Linus Roache, Rossif Sutherland, Marc Rissmann, Samuel Roukin, and Laila Robins are also part of the cast. A Call to Spy has an all woman production team, including costume designer Vanessa Porter, production designer Kim Jennings and composer Lillie Rebecca McDonough, notes Deadline. The release date of A Call to Spy is yet to be announced.