Anyone who has seen her seething Oscar-nominated performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” knows that Lesley Manville can be hard as nails on screen — though it’s a register the British veteran tends to play only in support, as her larger showcase roles, from “Another Year” to “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” usually put more fragile vulnerability to the fore. That “ Winter of the Crow ” places her front and center as a tough, resourceful protagonist in testing circumstances is reason enough to value Kasia Adamik ‘s taut, frostbitten Cold War thriller, though the film’s pleasures extend beyond that one key casting coup.

The premise, on the face of it, is a familiar one, in line with dozens of political thrillers about hapless outsiders caught up in webs of systemic corrupti

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