Ash (Riz Ahmed) offers a highly specialised, highly illegal and highly lucrative service to whistleblowers who have lost their nerve and want to give back the information they have stolen from their employers. For a fee he will engage with the company and broker a deal that secures a copy of the documents to ensure everyone keeps to their side of the agreement and leaves each other alone. 

To ensure anonymity Ash uses the relay service for deaf and speech-impaired people which allows typed messages to be relayed verbally by telephone operators. No records of these calls are kept ensuring the perfect mechanism to broker the secret clandestine deals. 

When Ash is approached by Sarah (Lily James) for his assistance he finds himself up against the rather formidable surveillance operative Dawson (Sam Worthington) who has been hired to neutralise Sarah and regain the information that she has stolen. 

Relay is a superb old fashioned cat and mouse thriller that features a taught script and wonderful set pieces that slowly ratchet up and deliver on some wonderful tension. 

Director David Mackenzie who gave us the incredibly tense Starred Up and excellent crime thriller Hell or High Water delivers a wonderfully crafted old fashioned thriller about every day individuals in extraordinary situations. Scenes set in airports, at the opera and in Times Square are all perfectly crafted set pieces that exemplify the genre. 

Riz Ahmed, Lily James and Sam Worthington are all fabulous as well with Ahmed delivering a restrained performance that resonates with his recent Sound Of Metal. 

Recommended.