Thirteen Lives

Ron Howard’s film is set in Thailand and was shot largely in Queensland. The Ausfilm production note spells it out: Mudgeeraba, Yatala, Numinbah Valley and Carrara stood in for Chiang Rai and its surroundings, Brisbane’s domestic terminal became Chiang Rai Airport, and the hospital scene went to Griffith University’s Logan campus. Two warehouses at Yatala held the production offices, a large purpose built water tank and the cave interiors; the crew was wanted partly for its water work. So the cave interiors were built inside a shed. The film won supporting visual effects at the 21st VES Awards. The weight is not all on the diving. A water technician from Bangkok asks farmers to let him divert the mountain water onto their fields, and the crop is lost. The boys are brought out sedated, one diver to a boy, the coach last. The credits record that the coach and three stateless boys were granted Thai citizenship; the film is dedicated to Saman Kunan, who died during the operation, and Beirut Pakbara, who later died of an infection. A good fit if you want the rescue costed out, from a drowned field to a line in the credits. Not for anyone who wants the camera to stay underwater; the pumps and the permissions get scenes of their own.