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Garbo The Spy (Garbo El Espía)

Edmon Roch
Spain / 2009 / 87 min / Spanish / Catalan / English

The Nazis called him Alaric. The British called him Garbo. Born in Spain, Juan Pujol (his true name) was one of the most successful double agents in history. Director Edmon Roch utilizes a fascinating mixture of fictional reconstruction, archive footage and film extracts to tell the unknown and real story of the Spaniard Joan Pujol Garcia, who fought on both sides in two wars without ever having held a weapon. The peak of his career came in 1944, when he succeeded in diverting German defense forces to Calais while the Allied landings were taking place in Normandy, thus averting considerable bloodshed. Rumor had it he died in 1949 after contracting malaria in Angola—until he was discovered more than 30 years later living a new life, yet again, in Venezuela.

Edmon Roch has written, directed and produced five short films, amongst them the multi-award winning Blood (1994). As a screenwriter, his works includeAway from the flock about the British artist Damien Hirst (1994), Tic, Tac, directed by Rosa Vergés (1996), Smalls for Immi Pictures (1998) and more recently, Mia Sarah directed by Gustavo Ron (2006). 
His credits as a producer include: Whit Stillman’s Barcelona (1994); Fernando Colomo’s The Butterfly Effect (1995); Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Seven Years in Tibet (1997). He line-produced the first and third films of Peter Greenaway’s trilogy The Tulse Luper Suitcases (2002/4), and was Delegate Producer of Tom Tykwer’s Perfume(2006). He has also co-produced Sönke Wortmann’s Pope Joan, and is the producer of Daniel Benmayor’s Bruc, Andrucha Waddington’s Lope and Enrique Gato’s Tadeo Jones 3D.In 2008, he published the book "Películas Clave del Cine Bélico" (Publisher: Ma Non Troppo). Garbo: The Spy is his first long-feature film as a director.