Synopsis
Barents Sea, August 12th, 2000. During a Russian naval exercise, and after suffering a serious accident, the K-141 Kursk submarine sinks with 118 crew members on board. While the few sailors who are still alive barely manage to survive, their families push for accurate information and a British officer struggles to obtain from the Russian government a permit to attempt a rescue before it is late. But general incompetence are against all their efforts.
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Cast
- Matthias SchoenaertsMikhail Averin
- Léa SeydouxTanya Averina
- Peter SimonischekAdmiral Vyacheslav Grudzinsky
- Max von SydowAdmiral Vladimir Petrenko
- August DiehlAnton Markov
- Colin FirthCommodore David Russell
- Bjarne HenriksenRussian Rescue Ship Captain
- Magnus MillangOleg Lebedev
- Artemiy SpiridonovMisha Averin
- Joel BasmanLeo
Recommendations
- 80
The Guardian
It’s a heartbreaking, troubling film about men whose lives were cruelly deprioritised and whose families remain ever altered as a result. 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. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
It's a competent, by-the-numbers action melodrama. - 60
CineVue
While Kursk doesn’t have the sufficient depth required for a truly effective historical drama it certainly works as a well-mounted and occasionally gripping, if somewhat formulaic thriller. - 60
The New York Times
The fine cast keeps us engaged, even if the film sometimes loses the narrative thread. - 60
Los Angeles Times
This is a solidly gripping and at times heartbreaking study of ordinary guys, out on the water trying to support their families, while knowing deep down — just from the shoddy condition of their sub’s equipment — that any given voyage is likely to be their last. - 50
Screen Daily
Too much of Kursk revolves around scenes of sodden sailors sitting around wondering why someone doesn’t just hurry up and rescue them. A sentiment likely to be shared by some audiences, as well. - 50
Variety
Vinterberg’s Kursk occasionally lands an emotive blow but only in its more fictionalized stretches, while it pulls its punches with the thorniest and most provocative elements of the real story, an instinct that unduly submerges much of the real horror and lasting consequence of this tragically, enragingly, heartbreakingly bungled incident. - 50
Movie Nation
It’s not a classic of the genre, not moving enough to truly grip the viewer and pull us to the edge of our seats. But a very good cast and a general respect for the facts makes The Command a worthy-enough entry, one that realizes sometimes there is no happy ending.
