On 17 August 2015, it was announced that EuropaCorp was developing a film based on the 2000 K-141 Kursk submarine disaster, and that Martin Zandvliet had been hired to direct the film from a script by Robert Rodat, based on Robert Moore's 2002 book A Time to Die. Kursk would have been Zandvliet's first English-language film. [3] On 21 January 2016, it was reported that Zandvliet was no longer attached and that EuropaCorp had hired Thomas Vinterberg to direct the film. [13] Taking the time to allow the viewer to make emotional bonds with the main characters in their private lives at the beginning of the movie pays off when everyone is on the submarine and everything begins to go wrong.

Kursk The Last Mission DVD 2019 Region 2 BBFC 13 Colin Firth Kursk The Last Mission DVD 2019 Region 2 BBFC 13 Colin Firth

The surviving crew members rally at the aft-most compartment, now rapidly taking on water. The crew desperately await rescue, while on dry land the sailors’ wives begin to hear rumours regarding the submarine. Royal Navy Commodore David Russell detects the seismic events and deduces that Kursk has had an accident. Admiral Grudzinsky, commander of the Northern Fleet, initially believes there are no survivors, but immediately tapping is heard through the hull of the submarine and the Russians deploy a rescue submersible. The old and poorly maintained craft cannot form a seal on the Kursk 's hull and is forced to return to the surface and wait for a 12-hour battery recharge. Intercutting between the plight of the men on the Kursk, their families at home, and the Russian bureaucrats in their offices, makes for an interwoven narrative where all sides of the people involved are highlighted, and specifically the motivation for their different agendas. Kursk: The Last Mission is a tension filled emotional rollercoaster that I hope doesn\’t get overshadowed by more \’mainstream\’ and bigger budget movies.

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Alexandre Desplat to Score Thomas Vinterberg's 'Kursk' ". Film Music Reporter. 8 May 2017 . Retrieved 9 May 2017. 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. 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 not all quite as effective, however. 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 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*). I found myself gripping my seat on more than one occasion as the situation the men found themselves in began to worsen, and I lost count of the number of times I involuntarily held my breath during underwater scenes which were literally a matter of life and death for all involved.

KURSK: THE LAST MISSION - Cinema For All

What followed was a media storm, with accusations of a cover up and a major political misfire by the newly elected President Vladmir Putin, who had refused to cut short his holiday while his submariners were dying. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2018, where Thomas Vinterberg (director) and Artemiy Spiridonov (actor) presented the film in English and Russian languages. [26] The film was scheduled to be released through DirecTV Cinema on 23 May 2019, before being released in a limited release on 21 June 2019, by Saban Films. [27] Reception [ edit ] Michael Nyqvist, ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ Star, Dies at 56. By Alex Stedman. Variety.com, June 27, 2017. Ouest france (5 May 2017). "Brest: Vintenberg tells part of the history of Kursk". Ouest france (in French) . Retrieved 9 May 2017.

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Ok, I am not fan at all of Soviet communism, of Russian nationalism under Putin, but this film is not bashing those evils -- it is bashing the Russian navy and doing so with falsehoods. it is political elements in Russia that underfunded and rushed the Kursk dangerous and haphazard refitting, that pushed early deployment, not their navy. Shooting was scheduled to start in September 2016, but it had to be postponed due to Russia's defence ministry not issuing a permit for shooting in the country, which would run for about a month. [21] According to The Hollywood Reporter, Russia's defense ministry originally promised cooperation with the crew to provide realism to the movie. [ citation needed] However, later it reportedly grew concerned about granting access to classified information and sensitive locations. [4] On 7 February 2017, ScreenDaily.com reported that shooting was scheduled to start in April. [20] On August 12, 2000, two underwater explosions sank the Kursk, Russia’s most technologically advanced submarine, plunging it 100m to the bottom of the Barents Sea. The second explosion was so big that it hit 4.2 on the Richter scale and was detected as far away as Alaska. Initially there were survivors – a reported 23 men trapped in the husk of the submarine – but after days of botched rescue attempts and stubbornness from the Russian Navy, the disaster had claimed the lives of all 118 crew members.