"Djúpið" (English captions) is based on a real life incident in 1984 when a fishing boat capsized off the coast of Iceland. All hands are thrown into the icy waters (temperature is 21° and the water is 41°). As you may know, a person can usually survive a scant 30 or 40 minutes in northern waters, but we watch an astonishing story as one man tries in vain to hail two passing boats, watches the Northern Lights, chats with a friendly sea gull, and makes promises to God if he can just live one more day. He does this for over six hours.
I toyed with the idea of listing the actors' and actresses' names, but their alphabet is somewhat different from ours and most of us can't pronounce them anyway, so suffice it to say, we saw terrific work that was utterly convincing.
The byplay of the crew feels authentic, e.g., one cautions another not to tell him how "Jaws" ends because he hasn't finished watching it yet. We watch (via newsreels) the volcanic eruption that Iceland experienced, as well as the aftermath, with citizens shoveling ash from their town.
When a film is based on real life, I always appreciate having the "real" person shown at the end of the film and this one includes excerpts from his interview! Hurrah!
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Here is a link to a preview:
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