Into the White

In 1940 a German and a British aircraft shoot each other down over Norway. The survivors come down in the same area and reach the same abandoned cabin. They draw weapons first, then have to light a fire. Outside it is thirty below and there is little food. They set rules: who sleeps where, who cuts wood, where the guns are kept. The subject is not war but enmity being unsustainable in the cold. Five men trained to kill each other need cooperation to survive, and the habits dissolve slowly. The film presents this as practical necessity rather than emotional transformation. The form is narrow and cold. Almost all of it takes place in one cabin; outside is white and empty. It was shot in Norway in real winter, and the actors' breath, shivering and exhaustion are in the image. The source is real: the crews of two aircraft downed in Norway in 1940 genuinely shared a cabin, and some of them stayed in contact after the war. The film rests on that and prints what became of the actual men at the end. Petter Næss directs. Rupert Grint plays one of the British crew and Stig Henrik Hoff the German pilot. Who it is for: viewers who like enclosed war drama. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action; the film is almost entirely talk and waiting.