Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Wim Wenders, Defiant Screen Entertainment.
Cast: James McAvoy, Alicia Vikander, Alexander Siddig, Clyn Jones.
The premise is not unconventional. Two itinerant souls who find each other, fall in love and part: one to explore the Atlantic Ocean, the other held captive by Somali jihadists.
Based on a novel by J.M. Ledgard, this is aptly described as a ‘love story, a spry story, and a vivid portrayal of Africa and the secret depths of the sea’.
What’s more, the novel is described as: “a masterly evocation of the intricacy of life.”
On the coast of Africa in a room with no windows jihadist fighters hold an Englishman James More (McAvoy, Deadpool 2) a prisoner. Posing as a water expert to report for the Secret Intelligence Service on al-Qaeda activity in the area, he now faces extreme privation, mock executions and forced marches through the arid badlands of Somalia.
Thousands of miles away on the Greenland Sea, Danielle Flinders (Vikander, Tomb Raider), a bio-mathematician, half-French, half-Australian, prepares to dive in a submersible to the ocean floor. She is obsessed with the life that multiplies in the darkness of the lowest strata of water.
Their jobs are destined to separate them, but a chance encounter in a remote resort in Normandy develops into a deliriously wild love affair. While they both prepared for their respective missions, they fall swiftly, and unpredictably, into each other’s arms.
Veteran director Wenders (Paris, Texas) uses uncanny strategy that is illustrated by divergent sections in which Danielle explores the ocean floor, while James is kidnapped, held in solitary confinement and tortured by Somali radicals.
The story is stirringly built around a multi-layered consideration of words like ‘submerged’,’ ‘depths’,’ ‘darkness’ and ‘light’.
You could win one of three DVDs of Submergence if you correctly tell us the names of the two leading actors. Entries should be sent to [email protected] by next Monday, 3 December 2018. Names of the winners will be announced in Frank Cassidy’s PS-sssst…! column next week.
