Orion's Belt

A Norwegian thriller, and it ain't half bad. Actually, it's half pretty good, and the rest is average. Three sailors, who make a living doing less than legal things with their broken-down boat, are quite happy roaming the stormy Arctic seas until they stumble on a secret Russian surveillance post. Chaos ensues as the Russians discover them and try to kill them off, notably in a fine helicopter attack. Towards the end, the suspense drops a little as the film becomes more conventional, but the first hour is gripping, intelligent, and unusual, both in terms of characterisation and story. And the location shooting, predictably, is superb.