War Sailor

War Sailor
Film poster
NorwegianKrigsseileren
Directed byGunnar Vikene
Written byGunnar Vikene
Produced byMaria Ekerhovd
Starring
CinematographySturla Brandth Grøvlen
Edited by
  • Peter Brandt
  • Anders Albjerg Kristiansen
Music byVolker Bertelmann
Production
companies
  • Falkun Films, Malta
  • Mer Film
  • Rohfilm Factory and Studio Hamburg
Release dates
Running time
150 minutes
Countries
  • Norway
  • Germany
  • Malta
LanguageNorwegian
Budget$11.1m

War Sailor (Norwegian: Krigsseileren) is a 2022 Norwegian war drama film directed by Gunnar Vikene.[1][2] It is the most expensive Norwegian film ever made.

Synopsis

Based on the true stories of the 30,000 Norwegian civilian sailors who participated in the Allied convoys during the Second World War, it follows two best friends from Bergen, one married and the other unmarried, who, in 1939, join the Norwegian merchant marine and are forced to stay at sea for the duration of the war without any ability to communicate with their families in occupied Norway. In the meantime, the married sailor's wife and their three children endure a harsh life in occupied Bergen, which is also bombed by the Allies. The British politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1959, Philip Noel-Baker commented after the war, "The first great defeat for Hitler was the battle of Britain. It was a turning point in history. If we had not had the Norwegian fleet of tankers on our side, we would not have had the aviation spirit to put our Hawker Hurricanes and our Spitfires into the sky. Without the Norwegian merchant fleet, Britain and the allies would have lost the war".[3]

Production

The film stars Kristoffer Joner, Pål Sverre Hagen and Ine Marie Wilmann. It was Norway's entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.[4]

War Sailor is a co-production of Rohfilm Factory and Studio Hamburg, Germany, and Falkun Films, Malta. It is the most expensive Norwegian feature film, with a budget of $11 million.[4][5]

Netflix miniseries

On 2 April 2023, the film was released on Netflix in the form of a three-part miniseries with an additional 30 minutes of runtime.[6][7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Gunnar Vikene's hit War Sailor selected as Norway's Oscar entry". Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  2. ^ "'War Sailor': a Maltese co-produced epic film that lives up to the title". Times of Malta. 20 November 2022. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  3. ^ "NRK TV - Vår ære og vår makt: I krig og kjærleik - 10.01.2010". Tv.nrk.no. 10 January 2010. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  4. ^ a b Rooney, David (2022-11-18). "'War Sailor' Review: Norway's Oscar Submission Is a Bruising Epic of WWII Conflict and Its Lingering Psychological Toll". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  5. ^ Mitchell, Wendy. "'War Sailor' director Gunnar Vikene on making Norway's most expensive film". Screen. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  6. ^ "'War Sailor': Maltese coproduced film getting its own Netflix miniseries". The Malta Independent. 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2024-08-19.
  7. ^ Dhanak, Rajveer (2023-10-21). "The Ending Of War Sailor Explained". Looper. Retrieved 2024-08-19.
Stub icon

This article related to Norwegian film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.