Smoke & MirrorsMovies like Smoke & Mirrors
- Key Features:
- Spy, Impostor, Deception, Political intrigue, True story, Conspiracy, Espionage, Betrayal, Cat and mouse, Anti-hero
- Tone:
- serious, suspense-driven, restrained
- Target Audience:
- Thriller enthusiasts, Political drama fans, True crime aficionados, Cerebral viewers
- Emotional Arc:
- ['Intrigue → Suspense → Revelation']
Smoke & Mirrors

A tale of cheats and impostors, taking its inspiration from true facts and from one of the most intriguing characters of recent decades: the spy Francisco Paesa.
Smoke & Mirrors
Based on a true story. In the 70s, during the last stages of Franco's dictatorship, Txema, a basque construction worker, is arrested because of his connection to some terrorists who have just committed a murder. The secret service see in him an ideal candidate to infiltrate the terrorist band ETA and become a mole, so they try to offer him a deal if he will do so.

When a man is found dead, the investigation shatters his widow's perfect facade and exposes a hidden double life in this thriller based on real events.

The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.

Valencia, Spain. On a rainy morning, six armed men in disguise assault a bank. But what seemed like an easy heist, quickly goes wrong with nothing unfolding as planned, and mistrust quickly builds between the two leaders of the gang.

Gloria encounters Francisco, a man whose social veneer betrays a truer self burrowed underneath.

The vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia, knowing he's being watched and followed, is one day arrested and put into solitary confinement.

Hoping to leave his criminal lifestyle behind him, a successful art thief teams up with a sexy con woman to pull off the ultimate heist and set himself free.

Havana, Cuba, 1990. René González, an airplane pilot, unexpectedly flees the country, leaving behind his wife Olga and his daughter Irma, and begins a new life in Miami, where he becomes a member of an anti-Castro organization.

In 1894, French Captain Alfred Dreyfus is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Devil’s Island penal colony.

A U.S Customs official uncovers a massive money laundering scheme involving Pablo Escobar.

An idealistic young employee at the U.N. investigates the grisly murder of his predecessor – and uncovers a vast global conspiracy that may involve his own boss.

When a menacing smuggler coolly insists that best-selling author Wes Wilson take a chauffeured backseat ride with him, Wilson's charmed life explodes into a world of violence and espionage, and he learns shocking truths about two women in his life.

Loosely based on real events that took place during Matteo Messina Denaro's thirty years on the run. A disgraced politician is gifted a second chance when secret services involve him in an operation to root out an elusive Mafia boss. Using his personal connection as the Boss' godfather, his task is to get him to reveal his hiding place in their secret letters.

An inventor of a secret process suddenly finds himself alone as both his friends and the corporation he works for turn against him.

Sebastien Grenier, a former French spy, is working as a financial analyst in Zurich. However, his peaceful existence starts to disintegrate when he is recruited by a top French intelligence operative to discover how one of their own secret agents was found out and executed in broad daylight.

In a kingdom ruled by a young and unpredictable king, the military commander has a secret weapon: a shadow, a look-alike who can fool both his enemies and the King himself. Now he must use this weapon in an intricate plan that will lead his people to victory in a war that the King does not want.

Modesto, an honest and responsible professional, is a manager of a small bank branch in Costa del Sol. His daughter died in a forest fire which he had thought to be accidental. One day he wakes up in his bank, after being locked and dragged by unknown men, and finds out in a safety-deposit box that the fire was plotted. From that day on, he sets on a personal crusade for justice.

Though it places his own life in danger, a look-alike commoner secretly takes the place of a poisoned king to save his country from falling into chaos.

After being imprisoned by the Assad regime in Syria, Hamid now works undercover as part of a secret group pursuing their leaders, including the guard he suspects was responsible for his torture.

Mikel will marry Julia, owner of a major jewelry he inherited from his parents. During the party in announcing their commitment, Mikel meets Ari, one of the waitresses catering. The attraction that arises between them will make Mikel is interested in the world of Ari: illegal motor racing. Then, the protagonist of this story decides to leave Julia without knowing the true intentions of the person who has seduced. Ari and her boyfriend, Navas, have hatched a plan to get around Mikel jewelry made with his ex-girlfriend.

In France, terrorist groups and intelligence agencies battle in a merciless war everyday, in the name of radically opposed ideologies. Yet, terrorist and secret agents lead almost the same lives. Condemned to secrecy, these masters of manipulation follow the same methods. Alex and Al Barad are two of them. The former is the head of the D.G.S.E.'s (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, the French equivalent of the CIA or the MI6) counter-terrorism unit while the latter reigns over a terrorist network, and both fight using the most ruthless of weapons: human beings.

A devoted wife and mother leads a secret life as a CIA agent until her husband’s article exposes a scandal, putting her identity and loved ones at risk. As her world crumbles, she must navigate the fallout of her double life.

A drama about the less known aspects of the trading activity inside one of the biggest banks in the world - Société Générale. The movie tracks the rise and fall of anonymous trader turned superstar turned escape goat - Jérôme Kerviel - just as the 2008 financial crisis was unfolding

When CIA operative Miles Kendig deliberately lets KGB agent Yaskov get away, his boss threatens to retire him. Kendig beats him to it, however, destroying his own records and traveling to Austria where he begins work on a memoir that will expose all his former agency's covert practices. The CIA catches wind of the book and sends other agents after him, initiating a frenetic game of cat and mouse that spans the globe.

Sonja Wigert, Scandinavia's most acclaimed female movie star, enlists as a spy for Swedish intelligence but ends up becoming entangled with the German Reichskommissar Terboven.

An ex-MI6 agent is thrown back into the world of espionage and high stakes to uncover the shocking truth about operations conducted by unknown secret services.

The real life story of Andres Lopez Lopez aka "Frecita" during his years involved with the Colombian Cartel aka "Cartel Norte del Valle"

A youth group is preparing for what will be the summer of their life, including secrets, lies, sex, confusion, evenings and holidays.

Two years after a burn-out, Duval is still unemployed. Contacted by an enigmatic businessman, he is offered a simple and well-paid job: transcribing telephone tapping. Duval accepts financially without questioning the purpose of the organization that employs him. Precipitated at the heart of a political plot, he must face the brutal mechanics of the underground world of the secret services.

An intelligence operative discovers that no one is what they seem in the shadowy world of espionage.

In danger of losing his business, Anthony Roca, an ordinary man, develops a scam that will become the heist of the century. Overtaken by the crime, he will have to deal with betrayal, murder and settling.

A conflicted youth confesses to crimes he didn't commit while a man and woman aroused by death become obsessed with each other.

In November 2009, French security van driver Toni Musulin makes off with nearly 12 million euros, then turns himself over to the authorities a week later.

Ayna is an actor and the prison is his stage. He slips into the characters of the powerful convicted in exchange of money and take their place in prison. This strange profession is borne out of a society that doesn't give him a chance to follow his passion of acting, but forces him to act in the real life. Falling in love with the girl next door changes his life equation and he decides to end this career with one last performance. But this one takes him too deep in the rabbit hole. The story unfolds on how an underdog survives in a society that is merciless and struggles his way out from the clutch of crime game which he is a part too.

The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot -- the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.

Don Sallust is the minister of the King of Spain. Being disingenuous, hypocritical, greedy and collecting the taxes for himself, he is hated by the people he oppresses. Accused by The Queen, a beautiful princess Bavarian, of having an illegitimate child to one of her maids of honor, he was stripped of his duties and ordered to retire to a monastery.

Cold War spy Greville Wynne and his Russian source try to put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

François, an ordinary Joe, falls hard for the sublimely beautiful woman who has just picked him up on the train and invited him to spend the weekend with her on the Riviera. But when the lady disappears the next morning and the police drag him in for questioning, François discovers he's been set up to pass for her notorious outlaw husband on the run, Anthony Zimmer. Even though he's been lied to and manipulated, François' life is changed forever and he's ready to give anything - maybe even his life - to hold this mysterious beauty in his arms again.

When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband – also a legendary agent – faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country.

During an historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain, the President of the United States is struck down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill, but what did they really see? As the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are replayed through the eyes of each eyewitness, the reality of the assassination takes shape.

Juan, a secret service agent, approaches Wendy, a young Filipina who works as a maid for a suspicious couple.

A movies special effects man is hired by a government agency to help stage the assassination of a well known gangster. When the agency double cross him, he uses his special effects to trap the gangster and the corrupt agents.

Eric O'Neill, a low-level surveillance expert with the FBI, believes he is accomplishing his dream of becoming a full-fledged agent, with his unexpected promotion and assignment to clerk for Robert Hanssen, a renowned senior agent with 25 years in the FBI. However, he soon learns the reason for his promotion is to gain Hanssen's trust and find proof that he is a traitor to the country. Determined to draw the suspected double-agent out of deep cover, O'Neill finds himself in a lethal game of spy vs. spy, where nothing is as it seems.

Ilyas Bazna works as a butler in the British Embassy in Turkey during WW2. After Bazna starts to work as a German spy he is going to experience a series of unexpected events.

In 1933, when Korea was under Japanese occupation, five people in Gyeongseong are suspected to be "Phantom" spies of the anti-Japanese organization.

While working undercover as a bodyguard to arms dealer Harry, former-soldier-turned-secret-service-agent Ewan survives a bloody shootout with a member of an Islamic terrorist cell who steals Harry's briefcase full of Semtex explosives and escapes. Ewan's spymasters task Ewan with hunting down the cell members and retrieving the briefcase.

A man on the run takes another man's passport, only to find himself stuck with the identity of a street hustler.

Ariel, a young French Jew, decides to leave his family to go to Israel and secretly become an agent of Mossad, the Israeli secret service. After years of training, his first mission is in Paris to steal secrets from Remy Prieur, a French atomic scientist.

In London, an airport baggage handler is forced by French and British intelligence agents to seduce the wife of a businessman with ties to Syrian terrorists.

Set in Argentina in 1965, the story follows the tumultuous relationship between two men who became lovers and ultimately ruthless bank robbers in a notoriously famous footnote in the annals of crime history. After a large-scale hold-up that turns bloody, the two men must flee. It is not long before the police are surrounding the building they are in and they must confront their demons to survive.

Ian is a teenager who lives with his father on the outskirts by running small scams using Ian's ability to generate visual illusions upon unsuspecting victims. When one of his cons goes awry, his abilities publicly spiral out of control and Ian becomes the target of two rival organizations, each seeking to exploit his powers.

An American tourist in Greece finds himself on the run after a tragic accident plunges him into a political conspiracy that makes him a target for assassination.

In 1994 a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later he is found alive thousands of miles away in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.

A drama centered on the relationship between journalist Michael Finkel and Christian Longo, an FBI Most Wanted List murderer who for years lived outside the U.S. under Finkel's name.

The haunted Captain of a Soviet submarine holds the fate of the world in his hands. Forced to leave his family behind, he is charged with leading a covert mission cloaked in mystery.

An intricate thriller about an ordinary man thrust into the biggest theft of Soviet information of the Cold War. Right after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A French businessman based in Moscow, Pierre Froment, makes an unlikely connection with Grigoriev, a senior KGB officer disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev. Grigoriev begins passing Froment highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the US.

Spain, 1982. Andrés Expósito, a young police inspector, accepts a posting in Denia, a small town on the Mediterranean coast, in the hope of leading a quieter life and that the natural environment will help improve the fragile health of his daughter; but once in his new post he becomes involved by chance in the investigation of the strange death of the inspector he has come to replace.

The professional mercenary Sir William Walker instigates a slave revolt on the Caribbean island of Queimada in order to help improve the British sugar trade. Years later he is sent again to deal with the same rebels that he built up because they have seized too much power that now threatens British sugar interests.

Juan lives in clandestinity. Just like his mum, his dad and his adored uncle Beto, outside his home he has another name. At school, Juan is known as Ernesto. And he meets María, who only has one name. Based on true events, set in the Argentina of 1979, this film is one about love.

Painter Francisco Goya becomes involved with the Spanish Inquisition after his muse, Inés, is arrested by the church for heresy. Her family turns to him, hoping that his connection with fanatical Inquisitor Lorenzo, whom he is painting, can secure her release.

When a former BlackRose cartel assassin deliberately betrays them by refusing to complete her mission, the cartel orders her execution. Unbeknownst to them, she fakes her own death and is able to create a new life of her own. When the cartel discovers she is alive, the hunter becomes the hunted as she fights to get revenge on those who took her new life away from her.

In the jungles of Ecuador, blood taints the waters. A multinational conglomerate's unholy alliance with a bloodthirsty military regime has resulted in a massacre. Only the rebel Francisco Franco and his determined wife Mia can prove the truth. To settle a personal debt, former CIA agent Jack Begosian takes on the freelance assignment to rescue Francisco and risks everything in a brutal battle to expose the cover-up.

Phantom is an action thriller that unfolds across various countries around the world. The plot revolves around protagonist Daniyal, whose journey to seek justice takes him from India to Europe, America and the volatile Middle East. However, he finds out that in a mission like this, there is always a price to pay, in this case, a very personal price.

Mattia is about to move to Madrid by his boyfriend Eduard. When the day before leaving for Spain, Eduard announces his arrival in Rome to know the "laws", Mattia must choose whether to finally come clean with his companion, or confess to being a formidable liar.

After a publisher changes a writer's debut novel about a deadly assassin from fiction to nonfiction, the author finds himself thrust into the world of his lead character, and must take on the role of his character for his own survival.

Super spy Lance Sterling and scientist Walter Beckett are almost exact opposites. Lance is smooth, suave and debonair. Walter is… not. But what Walter lacks in social skills he makes up for in smarts and invention, creating the awesome gadgets Lance uses on his epic missions. But when events take an unexpected turn, Walter and Lance suddenly have to rely on each other in a whole new way.

David Carr is a British Communist who is unemployed. In 1936, when the Spanish Civil War begins, he decides to fight for the Republican side, a coalition of liberals, communists and anarchists, so he joins the POUM militia and witnesses firsthand the betrayal of the Spanish revolution by Stalin's followers and Moscow's orders.

The story of the rise and fall of the first American-born drug lord in Mexico, this tale of power, money, greed and betrayal amongst rival members of the drug cartels finds American gangster Erik Vasquez scheming to become the top dog in the Mexican underworld, only to find himself making enemies out of both the powerful cartels and his own allies.

Cross is an old hand at the CIA who often teams up with Frenchman Jean “Scorpio” Laurier, a gifted freelance operative. After their last mission together, the CIA orders Scorpio to eliminate Cross, leaving him no choice but to obey.

Manuel, a Spanish politician whose high-class lifestyle is based on nefarious and illegal business threatens to break his entire party after a newspaper exposes him to the public eye. Rather than admit to any wrongdoing, he decides to sell out his whole party in an effort to avoid jail time. It's a decision that will put many lives at risk.

South Korea, 1993. An agent of the National Intelligence Service is sent to Beijing to infiltrate a group of North Korean officials with the ultimate goal of obtaining information about their nuclear program.

When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer Samir Horn.

A G8 meeting is being held at a luxury hotel on the German coast. The world's most powerful economists are gathered to enact important provisions that will deeply influence the world economy. One of the guests is a mysterious Italian monk, invited by Daniel Rochè, the director of the International Monetary Fund. He wants the monk to receive his confession, that night, in secret. The next morning, Rochè is found dead...

Alice Gould, a private investigator, pretends to be mentally ill in order to enter a psychiatric hospital and gather evidence for the case she is working on: the death of a patient in unclear circumstances.

Adolfo, a thirty something security guard, is going through a bad patch. Not only his lifetime girlfriend has just to finished with him to be a guy with no ambition but, moreover, he becomes the target of a series of thugs led by Vázquez, a dangerous criminal who has just escaped from jail. Also he discovers that his father has a double identity. He is not a farmer engaged in the production of cold meat – as Adolfo has believed all his life, but Anacleto, a secret agent who is a bit down and the man who locked Vázquez up in jail thirty years ago. Adolfo will have to leave his comfort zone and work with his father, the person that Adolfo get on worse with in the world to survive the revenge of Vazquez and while, between shootouts and chases, trying to get his girlfriend back.

Two thieves, who travel in elegant circles, try to outsmart each other and, in the process, end up falling in love.

In 1990s Belfast, a woman is forced to betray all she believes in for the sake of her son.

A former idealistic leader turned corrupt politician is cursed by his grandmother on the eve of the presidential election, forcing him to be honest. Can he win without lies and what will be the conditions?

Irene is a magazine editor living under the shadow of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Francisco is a handsome photographer and he comes to Irene for a job. As a sympathizer with the underground resistance movement, Francisco opens her eyes and her heart to the atrocities being committed by the state.

A young man is plunged into a life of subterfuge, deceit and mistaken identity in pursuit of a femme fatale whose heart is never quite within his grasp.

Barcelona, Spain. Adrián Doria, a young and successful businessman accused of murder, meets one night with Virginia Goodman, an expert interrogation lawyer, in order to devise a defense strategy.

Two con artists try to swindle a stamp collector by selling him a sheet of counterfeit rare stamps, the "nine queens".

Two romantically involved corporate spies team up to manipulate a race to corner the market on a medical innovation that will reap huge profits and allow them to lead an extravagant lifestyle together.

An entry-level employee at a powerful corporation finds himself occupying a corner office, but at a dangerous price—he must spy on his boss's old mentor to secure for him a multi-billion dollar advantage.

A criminal produces an uncontrollable laughter to the population and Mortadelo and Filemón will have to stop him.

When a Las Vegas performer-turned-snitch named Buddy Israel decides to turn state's evidence and testify against the mob, it seems that a whole lot of people would like to make sure he's no longer breathing.

Vladimir and Hector, two secret agents opposed in every way, are trying to recover a top secret material stolen by unknown intruders.

An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and identifies more with the mafia life at the expense of his regular one.

Jota's suicide attempt is interrupted when a motorcyclist crashes off a bridge. After he rescues her, he decides to invent a life story for her — one of love and shared memories — creating a fragile web of deception that intertwines their fates.

A notorious thief allies with a street racer for a grand heist involving an elaborate game of deceit with authorities, who have their own dirty secrets.

A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.

Michael Mason is an American pickpocket living in Paris who finds himself hunted by the CIA when he steals a bag that contains more than just a wallet. Sean Briar, the field agent on the case, soon realises that Michael is just a pawn in a much bigger game and is also his best asset to uncover a large-scale conspiracy.

From petty theft on the benches of Belleville to the over-publicised hold-ups of the large Parisian banks, this is the spectacular rise of Simon and his gang. They are capable of emptying a series of safes under the very nose of the police who are bewildered by the calm audacity shown by the group.

A young operative is sent on a mission to follow an older agent who's behavior has come into question.

Northern Spain, October 1944. Several groups of guerrilla fighters, former Republican soldiers exiled in France after the end of the Spanish Civil War, infiltrate the country in order to provoke a popular uprising against General Franco's dictatorship.

The story of the encounter between a boy and a girl. He confesses that he fell in love with her at first sight, but she does not believe him. However, as they walk through the night in Madrid, they share their desires, secrets, and maybe a few little lies. But soon the film brings us back to the harsh reality of power struggles, psychological games and conflicts between the sexes. Stockholm thus offers an incredible reading of the relations between young people today.



