The "sparrows" (or "swallows" as previous translations usually put it) were a real Soviet spy program. The entire plot was lifted entirely from real Cold War era spying. The plot makes an excellent thriller, with lots of twists which are nonetheless never too confusing. There is not a lot of fighting, but the level of realistic violence is quite high. All the characters were distinct enough from each other to tell who they were, so the twists on who was a good guy and who was a bad guy were easy to track.

For some reason I cannot fathom, they updated the setting of this story to modern day Russia. This is only apparent in the teacher's speech at the school and in calling the Russian security apparatus by the modern name instead of KGB. Everything else was a perfect 80s-era period piece, which is what this should have been. Thus, one point off.

Bottom line: if you like spy thrillers and you don't mind seeing a really graphic movie that you should definitely not bring your kids to, then see it.