This is another well-crafted war movie from Norway. Earlier, viewers were treated to a similar war movie, "Navik," also another well-made Norwegian production and shot in northern Norway.
What's impressive about War Sailor, which can be said about Narvik, too, is that it's a thoughtful movie without the obligatory hysteria that usually punctuates the genre.
The horrors of war don't distract the viewer from the compelling story that unfolds.
The major storyline may not be unique. There are war stories that highlight close friends in the battlefield who protect each other to the best of their abilities. A recent example is Devotion. Another is Band of Brothers.
This time around, the close friends are aboard merchant ships conscripted by the Norwegian government to the Allied war effort during the early part of World War II. This brings them to Malta and Liverpool en route to New York thence to Murmansk, Russia.
But aside from the gore of war that the limited series portrays, it also succeeds in driving home the raw emotions that loved ones torn apart by circumstance confront because of the reality of war wherever they are: in the high seas or in Bergen.
In the end, it's their love for each other, which can only be described as agape, that allows Freddy and Sigbjorn to survive the war and its aftermath.
There's this scene towards the end, when both men are in their seventies, in which Sigbjorn visits Freddie's family in Bergen on the occasion of the birthday of the latter's youngest son after so many years of absence. That scene is so gut-wrenching in unexpected ways.
The movie doesn't hesitate to inform the viewer, as an aside, of the losses inflicted on Norway for the sake of the Allied cause in terms of its citizens who died aboard its merchant ships as well as the number of such ships destroyed or sunk during the war.
This is a triumph of Norwegian cinema. Don't miss it.
