Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth) works in the anti-terrorist squad of the British Palestine Police force in Tel Aviv, a city ruled by British authorities trying to maintain increasingly difficult peace between the Palestinian and Jewish populations.
He is in love with Shoshana Borochov (Irina Starshenbaum), the daughter of Dov Ber Borochov, the Zionist Labour co-founder. As the organization known as Irgun works to push the Brits out of the region through whatever violent means possible, it naturally makes the romance between a Brit and a Jew increasingly difficult. Through Thomas and Shoshana’s relationship the film explores the way extremism and violence drives a wedge between people, forcing them to choose sides. This is a handsomely mounted period piece about a place and time in which friends were forced into becoming enemies, and Winterbottom draws an exceptionally solid performance from his leading lady.