Orion's Belt (1985)

Original title

Orions belte

Directed by

Ola Solum, Tristan DeVere Cole

Genre

thriller film

Country

Norway

Runtime

1h 27m

Rated

15

Rating

5.7 of 10 from 25 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Three Norwegian seamen working in Svalbard stumble upon a secret Soviet military installation. They find themselves caught between Soviet forces who want them dead and American officials who interrogate them to keep the Cold War balance intact.

tensesuspensefulbleakcoldisolatedpoliticalurgentgritty

What happens

Orion's Belt (Norwegian: Orions belte) is a 1985 Norwegian dual-language, political action thriller film, directed by Ola Solum and Tristan de Vere Cole. It is based on Jon Michelet's 1977 novel by the same name. The film follows three Svalbard-based shabby seamen, played by Helge Jordal, Sverre Anker Ousdal and Hans Ola Sørlie, who discover a Soviet bearing station. They are subsequently targets of Soviet liquidation and American interrogation in an attempt to quiet them and retain the political status quo. The Cold War topics were a critique of the Norwegian policy of allowing a Soviet presence on Svalbard. The film was produced by Dag Alveberg and Petter Borgli, and the script was written by Briton Richard Harris. Two versions of the film were recorded, a Norwegian cinematic film and an English-language television film. First Solum shot the Norwegian-language scenes, and then Cole shot the same scene with the actors speaking English. The entire crew and cast lived on board a ship which traveled through Svalbard and Finnmark during production. The theme music, Svalbardtema, was composed by Geir Bøhren and Bent Åserud and has become an anthem for Svalbard. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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