Big-budget Film About Russian Sub Kursk Disaster Starts

CANNES, France, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th May, 2017 ) - A big-budget drama about the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk has begun shooting, its producers said Friday at the Cannes film festival.

"Kursk", which stars British actor Colin Firth as the British Royal Navy commander who led failed efforts to try to rescue survivors of the tragedy, is being made in giant indoor water tanks near Antwerp in Belgium.

"bond" actress Lea Seydoux plays the wife of one of the 24 Russian sailors who survived the initial underwater explosion in the Barents Sea in August 2000.

Russian authorities controversially refused help from British and Norwegian naval vessels, and all 118 sailors on board the nuclear submarine died.

They were later criticised for the decision and for misleading the public about the pace of the rescue operation. The Belgium Belga Films Fund said they were putting an extra $5.6 million (five million Euros) into the $39-million project led by acclaimed Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, of "Festen" fame.