A small group of military officers frustrated by the corruption and brutality of a fictional contemporary European government decide that they must overthrow the current administration. But the coup's leader worries that there is a spy in their group.
Colonel Narriman, an idealistic and soon-to-retire army officer, becomes sickened by the government's use of extrajudicial killing and torture to suppress the terrorist insurgency that their incompetence and corruption has fostered. Jean Rousseau persuades him that, instead of retiring, he should attempt to overthrow the regime for the good of the country.[5]
Worried about infiltration by agents of the hated internal security chief Blair, he emphasises operational security, as he knows he can expect no mercy if caught, while he builds the coup one important recruit at a time. A key such person is Colonel Zeller, whose armoured brigade is seen as vital for capturing the capital city quickly.
The final part of the film is the actual conduct of the coup attempt with exciting twists and surprises.
Flag of the unnamed republic where the coup d‘ etat is taking place
The UK-Canada co-production was filmed in Canada and West Germany.[citation needed] It was one of a series of Canadian films partly financed with some money from the Rank Organisation.[6]
The flag of the film's unnamed republic, "a generic country with no specific geography or culture", was green, yellow and black.
It was one of the first films financed under Canadian tax concessions.[7]
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Set in a kind of latter-day sub-Ruritania populated exclusively by soldiers, politicians and (briefly) terrorists, Martyn Burke's banana-republic view of modern power politics is fashionably cynical but predictably tendentious and banal, not helped by tired casting... and an irrelevant overfondness for bellicose production values. As in other recent military adventure films, such as the Entebbe trio and The Wild Geese, there is a disquieting tendency to romanticise the armed forces and to promote them as the proper guardians of democracy (as if they were free from the corruption endemic in politics and big business)."[8]
Variety wrote: "The appeal of "Power Play" is presumably to the action crowd.... Intellectually, if that counts, the occasionally incoherent story line of the conspiracy will leave many minds puzzled. The screenplay shows signs of much re-editing and its character motivation clutter is of television flavor."[9]
Accolades
The film won the Best Screenplay award at the Canadian Film Awards.[10]
Home media
It was released on DVD in 2005 by New Star Video under the title A State of Shock.[citation needed]
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