The general demonization of Russian characters in the media circa 2019 doesn’t sit well with the universally agonising narrative featured in Kursk: The Last Mission, also known as The Command in the U.S. The details of the Kursk submarine tragedy have been somewhat lost in the endless news-cycle; a feature film offers a chance to memorialise the dead, and remind the living why their loved ones died. Kursk is a serious, sobering film, with a simple political stance that warns of the consequences of isolation; the target of Thomas Vinterberg’s film is what it sees as an intransigent Russian government circa 2000, with Russian naval equipment proving unsuccessful in rescuing the sailors trapped underwater. Whether passing the responsibility for the rescue to a UK team at the earliest possible date might have saved those who died on the crippled submarine is unknown; Vinterberg’s drama seeks to persuade audiences that British know-how might have pulled off a miracle. The subject promises only a tough watch, but the cast help make things compelling; Colin Firth brings grit to his role as Commodore David Russell, of the British Navy, who clashes with Max von Sydow’s Admiral Vladimir Petrenko. On the ocean floor, Matthias Schoenaerts sweats and toils as his men face a chilling lack of oxygen, while Lea Seydoux’s soon-to-be-widow is frustrated by the authorities at severak press-conferences. A product of Luc Besson’s Eurocorp, Kursk: The Last Mission is a well-mounted and involving drama, with some startling moments and an unfashionable but admirable sympathy for ordinary Russian people in the grip of a terrible human tragedy
If you’re in the UK, this is in Cinemas and on Digital HD 12 July 2019
Comments
Loading…