Starring: Jim Warny
Distributor: Heritage Films
Runtime: 104 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2021
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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In mid 2018, world attention was focused on Thailand as a team of young footballers and their coach were trapped in a cave with waters rising. This film shows the enormous international effort and logistics involved in the two weeks before rescue of the boys and coach.
The trouble with time for so many of us is that it passes so quickly. It is more than three years since the world watched on, anxious, eager, and ultimately rejoicing, when the young members of a Thai football team and its coach were rescued after being trapped in a cave for almost two weeks.
This dramatisation of those events is an opportunity for us to remember, to admire.
As expected, this is a straightforward film. We are introduced to the boys and their coach as they play football, ride their bikes to the cave and going in to explore. In fact, while the screenplay goes back to the boys and the coach trapped in the cave, in the darkness, it does not spend a lot of time with them nor identify them strongly for the audience sympathy and understanding. They are the group. They have been trapped. They need to be rescued.
Most of the film concerns the rescue effort. All around the world there was constant reporting in that June-July of 2018 (and this is illustrated by several journalists reporting here). And, of course, constant news, constant images, constant speculation on social media.
However, it is helpful to remember that this was an extraordinary task, involving extraordinary logistics and extraordinary effort from so many people. While there is an emphasis on the Thai authorities, there is some implied criticism of the fussy bureaucracy that some of the officials demanded, holding up those who had volunteered to come and help, even those with drainage equipment, not letting them in until they had government authorisation. A reminder that there is always the danger of petty bureaucracy.
However, there is also great emphasis on the international collaboration, from the Americans with their organisational skills. But, also a significant emphasis on the cave divers who came from around the world. This is dramatised especially in the figure of Jim Warny, a cave expert living in Ireland who was urged to go to Thailand. Which means then that this often documentary-like narrative has the human element. Jim leaves his fiancée, but stays in touch with her as she gives encouragement. It means we identify with him as he worries about the situation, does various dives and tests, becomes heavily involved in the transporting the children from the deep cave.
This film is a solid reminder of the crisis and the wonder of world collaboration for the rescue.
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