Transatlantic transactions: UK–US relations and the ‘War on Terror’ in Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer

Abstract

Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer (2010) engages with the ‘special relation’ between the US and the UK in the context of the ‘Global War on Terrorism’. As this essay argues, the film considers the UK’s relationship with the US as part of a wider net of rather opaque transatlantic exchanges and transactions. The film suggests that such exchanges and transactions have ultimately led to both a generalised distrust in the role of political elites and a growing resentment towards traditional modes of international relations in the wake of the ‘War on Terror’.