![]() It’s a heartbreaking, troubling film about men whose lives were cruelly deprioritised and whose families remain ever altered as a result. He delivers one of the film’s most poignant moments, struggling to maintain composure in his uniform after finding out some tragic news. There’s also a strong turn from Colin Firth who plays real-life British commander David Russell whose attempts to help the rescue mission were rejected. It’s a striking, heartfelt performance and marks some of her best work to date. ![]() They were kept in the dark as well as being openly lied to and Seydoux’s steely concern eventually explodes in an electrifying town hall scene before she delivers a gut-wrenching last act speech. One of the most enraging elements of the film is how poorly the men’s relatives were treated by authorities. While too often films of this ilk struggle to add depth to the stock character of “waiting spouse”, Rodat’s script gifts Léa Seydoux, playing the wife of Mikhail, a far less passive role. It’s a price to pay for a wider audience and while initially distracting, it could have been far worse (*coughs* Harrison Ford in K-19 *ends coughing*). Given the budget and the ensuing expectations, Kursk exists in that familiar movie universe where Russian characters are played by Belgian, French, German and Swedish actors, all of whom speak English throughout. It’s not all quite as effective, however. The most notable, and successful, of these is Vinterberg’s decision to play with the screen ratio, only widening it out when the Kursk is submerged, and elsewhere, he employs intimate camerawork in the scenes between the men both above and below sea level, an independent touch in a broader picture, and some eerily effective views of the water that surrounds the ailing sub. It’s an unlikely lurch toward the multiplex for a director who once co-founded the Dogme 95 movement with Lars von Trier and there are some interesting stylistic choices at play. Siloed in a damaged compartment, the men await rescue while struggling to remain alive.Ĭolin Firth in Kursk. But after equipment malfunctions, a set of explosions rip through the sub, killing the majority of the crew and sending the rest down to the bottom of the Barents Sea. As part of a rare naval exercise (the first such to take place in Russia for 10 years), the men then head deep underwater in the Kursk submarine, stacked with a range of other missiles. This time, it’s the inhumane pridefulness of the Russian military.Īs we meet Mikhail and his fellow sailors, they’re preparing for a wedding, a final hurrah before they head undersea for a weapons test. In that film it was the callous corporate greed of BP. Like in 2016’s Deepwater Horizon, which told of a similarly waterlogged disaster, there’s frighteningly well-choreographed human tragedy but also an unblinking urgency in holding the feet of those accountable to the fire. It’s a haunting, hopeless moment in a film that not only stings with sadness but bristles with rage.
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