Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. This evening: a war film straight from Belgium.
In 1943, a team of Belgian resistance fighters without faith or law is hired to take a shipment of uranium ore to the United States, where it will be used to manufacture the famous atomic bomb. But their submarine goes off in disaster with two unexpected members: a German captain and a Congolese. Immersed in the middle of an underwater war, this small group will have to overcome the differences that oppose them in order to overcome the dangers that await them on the road…
In 2019, director Sven Huybrechts makes the first Flemish contribution to submarine films with U-235. Unlike the classics of the genre, however (In pursuit of Red October, The Boat), there is no technical jargon or complex geopolitical intrigue. Rather, the film reconnects with old-fashioned adventure cinema – to the point of bordering on parody -, borrowing references from The Dirty Twelve, Raiders of the Lost Ark by Steven Spielberg, or even the irreverent Inglourious Basterds by Tarantino.
Combining heroic military mission, personal revenge and family emancipation, U-235 fully assumes its testosterone B series side. There are caricatural characters (vicious Nazis, gruff mercenaries), gory sequences, a symphonic soundtrack and a deluge of spectacular explosions. Special mention to Ella-June Henrard, the film’s only heroine, who manages to impose herself in this macho universe.
U-235 by Sven Huybrechts with Koen De Bouw, Thure Riefenstein, Ella-June Henrard…
From 12 years old
Tonight on CStar at 9:10 p.m.