Relay services – telecom systems through which deaf people can talk on the phone via third-party operators – are typically accessed these days via textphones or apps. But in this ingenious cat-and-mouse thriller from David Mackenzie, the director of Starred Up and Hell or High Water, Riz Ahmed’s Ash keeps it old school.
Drifting unnoticed through present-day New York, he’s an underworld fixer whose stock-in-trade is brokering delicate bargains – the latest involving Lily James’s Sarah, a would-be corporate whistleblower who’s developed cold feet. And the only thing that picks him out in a crowd is his trusty analogue teleprinter: a beige plastic whatnot the size of a fax machine, with which he can send and receive sensitive messages without leaving digital prints.
Using the device’s gratifyingly clunky keyboard, he prods out his side of the conversation, which is then read aloud to the recipient by a random call-centre employee. In many ways, James’s Sarah is a typical client: the bombshell documents she stole from an unscrupulous agri-tech firm are, she’s decided, too hot to handle, so she wants to negotiate their return without ending up in prison, or worse.
