Dane to direct drama about Kursk tragedy

Film about ill-fated Russian sub to be Martin Zandvliet’s first in English

The Danish director Martin Zandvliet – known for the Danish films ‘Dirch’ and ‘Applaus’ – has been hired to direct a film portraying the tragedy aboard the Russian nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea 15 years ago killing all 118 of its crew.

It will be the 44-year-old’s first English-language film.

The manuscript has been developed by Robert Rodat, a 1999 Oscar nominee for best original screenplay for ‘Saving Private Ryan’, based on the Robert Moore book ‘A Time to Die’ detailing the Kursk tragedy.

READ MORE: Mads Mikkelsen headed to a galaxy far, far away

Tragedy on the high seas
The Kursk sank in 2000 during a naval exercise following a failed torpedo launch that led to a large explosion.

Some 23 sailors who survived the initial blast eventually succumbed to oxygen deprivation while the Russian government rejected international assistance from Norwegian and British experts for five days.

Meanwhile, Zandvliet’s latest film ‘Land of Mine’, about a group of German prisoners-of-war who are ordered to remove their own landmines on the west coast of Jutland following the Second World War, has been chosen for the Toronto Film Festival next month.





  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.