Based on actual events, War Sailor is set principally in the period 1939 to 1947, though it continues until 1972. Acclaimed director Gunnar Vikene takes audiences on a journey of war and beyond.
The story begins in 1939 and follows two Norwegian men. One is Alfred (Kristoffer Joner), husband of Cecilia (Ine Marie Wilmann), with whom he is raising their three children. The other man is Sigbjorn (Pal Sverre Hagen), Alfred’s longtime easygoing and free-spirited friend.
They are employed as dock workers in Bergen. Although there are rumblings of a German-occupied Norway in the near future, Alfred and Sigbjorn decide to take their chances on the open sea and find employment as merchant marines on a ship sailing to New York.
Alfred, a cook by trade, is not as equipped as Sigbjorn for the job at hand. However, it becomes evident that, during their harrowing journey at sea, Alfred’s fatherly bravery and smarts amply compensate for his lack of experience as a sailor.
Unbeknownst to them when they took on their sea-faring job, they would become combat soldiers – once Allied Forces took over the merchant marines’ vessels.
What sets this movie apart from other WWII films is that Vikene focuses on the characters and their relationships rather than rip-roaring, bloody battle scenes. The remarkable action scenes were shot in the ocean rather than in studio tanks.
Substantial time is also devoted to the women and children who remain at home, and the horrors those families suffer under German occupation. Not only do we see the tragedies inflicted by the Germans on Norwegian citizens at home, but there are also the dangers posed by the presence the Allies – in particular British military, which, when bombing the German bunkers in Bergen, unintentionally killed Norwegian schoolchildren.
This two-and-a-half-hour epic is the most expensive Norwegian film ever made, budgeted at US$11.1 million. The production was initially scheduled for 2020 but, due to the pandemic, it was pushed back to 2021. War Sailor was filmed over 60 days in Norway, Germany, and Malta.
The Norwegian film shines a light on the psychological effects of war as much as it does on the physical devastation of battle.