Playwright and film-maker Martin McDonagh has said the CIA's history of covert interventions deserves greater scrutiny, speaking as his new film Wild Horse Nine premiered at the Venice film festival. The Oscar-tipped drama stars John Malkovich as a veteran CIA agent grappling with guilt over decades of US interference abroad, and McDonagh said he wanted to highlight actions that go relatively unquestioned compared with those of agencies such as the KGB, particularly given current political events.

The film follows Malkovich's character, Chris, stationed in Santiago on the eve of the 1973 US-backed coup against Chile's Salvador Allende, who is later sent to Easter Island with his protege, played by Sam Rockwell, and reflects on his involvement in other CIA operations, including the 1954 Guatemalan coup and the 1961 killing of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba. The cast also features Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey and Tom Waits. At the press conference, McDonagh drew a link to present-day geopolitics, remarking that covert US actions now seem less concealed than in the 1970s, after Malkovich and other US cast members declined to comment on the Trump administration's capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January.