This drama in World War II is the best film that you have not seen on Netflix

I don’t say that it is strangely relevant today, strangely enough, when I looked at a war film about the increasing flood of fascism and the decisions we make or to fight. If there is a genre that we can rely on in order to finally comment directly on today’s political climate, it is this. In the past few years, films in the Second World War have given us high traces of water such as “Oppenheimer” and given Especially the annoying horror of the “zone of interest”. But as with the clockwork, we always seem to get an annual series of titles that range from “unforgettable” to “almost miserably”. (Sorry, Mel Gibson, but I still haven’t given them “Hacksaw Ridge”.) It is common to make an uninterrupted feature that either plays into the Jingoist area or settles with flat inspiration. It is MUch It is more difficult and yet worthwhile to create some timeless and urgent effort with a flawless effort.

“Number 24” (also stylized as “No. 24”) reaches all of this and more. It does not come with the headline amount of a Christopher Nolan War Epic (“Dunkirk” fans know that he did two of them), The Oscar season temperature of an “All Quiet on the Western Front” Remake or even the RAH-RAH campaign by Guy Ritchies “The Ministry of Ungentleman Warfare”. What this Norwegian -speaking drama pursues a much more steamed, more reserved and deeply moving approach for a historical figure that most of us Westerners have never heard of. Although this is a dramatization of Gunnar Sønsteby’s achievements, the real hero who opposed Nazi Germany’s occupation and became the country of the country, the film has hardly ever entered the same pitfalls of countless biopics. To be honest, the results are a touch of fresh air in a genre that is constantly endangered to be outdated.

Director John Andreas Andersen and author Erlend Loe, who is good at typical conventions or clichés, have been taking another unobtrusive biopic and transformation “number 24” in one of the best underestimated war dramas for years.

What kind of person does it take to put and decide to a penetrating army of fascists and decide to risk everything to defeat them? “Number 24” almost correctly asks this question from the start. We first meet Gunnar in the present as an old man (played by Erik Hivju You have to find out whether you want to accept the situation in which you are in and to take care of what will become your new reality or to defend yourself against and so to risk everything. appears In order to indicate that he made his choice when he happened to his accountant job like nothing – not too unlike the way we go into work, even if he burst at democracy in social media in his seams. However, an opportunity to meet an underground resistance fighter relies on a path that will define everything … not only his own life, but also the fate of his country.

The audience could be distracted by the frame device, which places us in the perspective of an audience of students in today’s Norway and took part in a lecture led by the older Gunnar. But even though he gives away the game that the freedom fighter actually survives the events of the film, not a single moment of tension feels sacrificed. This is mainly due to the very specific missions specified by “number 24”. Every act of resistance and every rebellion can of course decide between life or death, but Gunnar exposes it perfectly after he has asked his age (25, he confirms) and is informed: “It is possible that you will not get older . Don’t you have it older. “I can accept that.” There is simply more risk than he lives or not.

However, his courage is not the only example exhibited in “Number 24”. Wherever he turns around, other compatriots make similar decisions: Local Baker Reidun (Ines Høysæter Asson) enables secret meetings of resistance fighters the risk of their well -being. And the SS could lead directly to her door.

Do not let the promise of explosive sabotage, with CGI-filled destruction and all the usual hot movie vibrations Accompany war films based on such true stories. Although “number 24” certainly contains a handful of tense set pieces and cathartic moments of Norwegian “terrorists”, which do everything in their power to force the Nazis invaders out of their country real The pleasure of seeing this film comes from his attention to detail. Spycraft, fight against resistance and anti -fascism with so much minimalism – or a complete lack of interest on the fuss – was rarely shown here. Director of Photography Pål Ulvik Rokseth chooses his places for scenes with dramatic lighting and even a few carefully selected moments of interpreting sprors (as if we see, like Gunnar, or an unexpected, anachronistic radiohead need drops), but otherwise a bleak includes a bleak And washed -out color palette that corresponds to hopelessness in the air.

This emphasis on everyday life goes back to the plot of the film, in which we are constantly treated with the forgotten and often unsexy logistics of increasing a secret network of fighters. This does not mean that a single moment of this story ever looks boring. Even while Gunnar serves his competitive government in Oslo as “eyes and ears”, tirelessly done his legs to establish contacts and create trust and strategically avoid Nazi patrols) under such extreme circumstances. Gunnar does not allow itself to be a vice that could distract themselves from the mission, be it women or drinks or even a moment to breathe easily, and we see that the tribute that demands this as well as his war-bound past as well PTBS distributed present.

When we roll on the emotional conclusion, the film plays its last hand and shows itself as a thoughtful meditation about the costs of the struggle for freedom. The victims we bring will be important and we will have no choice but to live with the consequences … but isn’t that better than rolling in the face of authoritarianism? Gunnar Sønsteby represents the ultimate teaching to understand the severity of the situation, and his story will be grateful for the uncoveration of this little -known chapter in history.

“Number 24” is currently streamed on Netflix.