Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.“It is a period of civil war.” So began the opening crawl of the first Star Wars film in 1977. Now, in the returning Andor, we see the bloody blossoming of that conflict and its human costs. After several movies and series that failed to add meaningfully to the saga, showrunner Tony Gilroy proves that there’s dramatic life in the franchise yet, even newfound maturity.This is not a universe of magical Jedis, lightsabers and force-be-with-yous. Fascism does not wear a fright mask but a self-satisfied smile, fuelled by corruption and greed; resistance is clandestine and mortally risky. The tone darkens far beyond anything Star Wars has seen before: into the world of Ewoks and Gungans come drug abuse, adultery and sexual predation.The echoes of our own reality hardly need stating, but at times they are uncanny: at a Wannsee-like conference, Imperial hardliners plot the plundering of a vulnerable planet for its rare and precious minerals — and never mind the lives at risk. The prevailing mood is sombre, paranoid, twitchy.There are some mis-steps. The gleeful marrying off of a 13-year-old senator’s daughter makes you wonder, did “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” mean 1950s Alabama? From there we leap awkwardly to 1990s Ibiza and a toe-curling display of mum- and dad-dancing at a wedding party set to thumpingly cheesy house. Were the Cantina Band not available? Worst of all, the scene is queasily intercut with an attempted rape on a faraway farm.But Andor quickly refinds its footing. Gilroy plate-spins a dizzying number of plot lines, characters and locations — too many to enumerate here — as anti-fascist senators scheme in gleaming skyscrapers and grubby insurgents scrap in muddy trenches. He even finds time for a dash of Oedipal sitcom as Imperial yuppie couple Dedra (Denise Gough) and Syril (Kyle Soller) entertain his manipulative mother in their penthouse, Kathryn Hunter purring like a latter-day Eartha Kitt as the catastrophising Eedy. “You’re watching too much Imperial news,” Syril scolds her wearily.The excellent cast is led by Diego Luna as the stoically heroic rebel Cassian Andor and Genevieve O’Reilly, oozing bruised dignity as Mon Mothma. They are joined by familiar old faces: Ben Mendelsohn, as a snarling, sibilant Imperial grandee, and Forest Whitaker, as a wild-eyed guerrilla leader, reprise their roles from the 2016 movie Rogue One, to which this series serves as a prequel.But Andor wisely never lapses into the lazy fan service that has cheapened so many expensive other outings since Disney took over. That its second season will also be its last ensures that, for once, quality will trump quantity. Andor is the most grown-up and satisfying addition to Star Wars of the streaming era: a new hope.★★★★☆On Disney+ now
