Another Country is a thinly disguised biography of British double agent Guy Burgess (called Guy Bennett in the movie).

Set in the exclusive boarding school of Eton – the training ground of Britain’s ruling elite – it is based around the experience of two disaffected students. One of these – ‘Bennett’ (played by Rupert Everett) – is openly and actively gay: the other – ‘Judd’ (played by Colin Firth) – is a Marxist who rails against the privilege and elitism of the English public school system.

Bennett generally manages to keep out of trouble by sleeping with, then blackmailing the school prefects as necessary. However, he soon comes unstuck when the headmaster intercepts a love letter he has sent to another boy and uses it to publicly discredit him.

Meanwhile Judd struggles with the impending prospect of becoming one of the school’s senior prefects – something that he feels simply endorses a system of oppression.

The lessons that Bennett learns is that there’s no place in the world for people who are openly homosexual. For Judd it’s that the ruling class has no interest in democracy.

It comes as little surprise, therefore, when the film ends with the explanation that Bennett became a spy for Russia and ultimately defected there, whereas Judd died fighting Franco’s troops in the Spanish Civil War.