The film accurately portrays what is now accepted to have really happened: a hydrogen peroxide leak in one of the sub’s HTP (high test peroxide) torpedoes. However, the Russian government, despite the offers coming from the international community refused help and wasted valuable time. That was the official Russian line afterwards,” says Grove, “after all the ‘we got rammed by an American submarine’ stuff.

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

He delivers one of the film’s most poignant moments, struggling to maintain composure in his uniform after finding out some tragic news. explosions aboard the Russian submarine Kursk cause it to sink during a naval exercise in the Barents Sea, leaving 23 survivors trapped below on the ocean floor. In the final act of Thomas Vinterberg’s fiery retelling of the devastating Kursk submarine disaster of 2000, his fictional protagonist Mikhail Kalekov, played by Matthias Schoenaerts, asks a chilling question. Deadline Hollywood also reported that Firth would play David Russell, a British naval commander going against Russia's warnings to try to save the men on the Kursk.When it gets under the water and the accident occurs, the action flits between underwater survival situations (freezing to death, diminishing oxygen) and dry-land dramas as the Russians refuse help from the international community (aka Colin Firth in sensible knitwear) over sheer pride and the families fight for news of their loved ones, Seydoux getting some meaty scenes in the process. First, there’s a 16-hour wait for authorities to even find the sub and then when located, there are deep structural issues with the potential mode of rescue, with shoddy, failing equipment making a difficult mission turn desperately impossible.

KURSK: THE LAST MISSION - Cinema For All

A third Russian attempt to rescue the survivors is made, but again the Russian submersible still cannot force a seal and the Russians ultimately and finally agree to foreign assistance.

Ignoring the advice of their own people, the Russian government refuses the help of the UK Navy operation headed by Captain David Russell (Colin Firth). The project was produced by France's EuropaCorp with Belgium's Belga Productions and Luxembourg's VIA EST.

Kursk: The Last Mission review – devastating drama tackles Kursk: The Last Mission review – devastating drama tackles

It ends on a note of melancholy but the burning anger also remains, the final scenes tinged with a painful awareness of wounds that may never heal. A film depicting the disaster, Kursk: The Last Mission, is out in cinemas today, directed by Thomas Vinterberg and starring Colin Firth as Commodore David Russell, the British officer who offered to help rescue the doomed submariners, and Matthias Schoenaerts as a fictionalised survivor. Russell's divers arrive too late at the submarine, finding the entire hull flooded and the crew dead. They ran out of money,” says Philip D Grove, a naval historian and lecturer at Britannia Royal Navy College. Schoenaerts and Seydoux doubtless do this for themselves but many of the supporting cast are presumably dubbed, and this only ceases to be a relevant factor when we have scenes featuring Royal Navy officers including Commodore David Russell played by Colin Firth.

Alexandre Desplat’s spare score is impeccable and Vinterberg’s regular DP, Anthony Dod Mantle, makes the confines of a sub both constricting and beautiful. Oleg Lebedev: The next day the little polar bear goes to his mother again and says, "Let me see if I got this right. In this film, fresh names have been given to the main characters and no mention is made of the fact that the Russian President who came under fire at the time was one Vladimir Putin. Grab a few tissues, prepare to clench your fists, and then sit back and watch how the human spirit can survive even the toughest of times. I recommend this movie, it feels as if it's a slow movie but it's very compelling to watch because we quickly get to know the characters.