Heavy Water War: Les soldats de l'ombre

This is a miniseries about the German efforts to create the first nuclear bomb as well as the Allied effort to put a stop to it. Much of the film is set in Norway, as it was the center for Nazi deuterium production. Because of this, the series is in Norwegian, English and German (with a tiny bit of French). While it might not sound that interesting, it is--provided you are patient and give the programs a chance. My only reservations are minor. First, although it's stylish, the shaky cam is a STUPID idea and I have no idea why it's used throughout the show. I watched it on a very large screen TV and it practically induced motion sickness. Second, the CGI of the B-17s was rather poor. Eight year old episodes of "Dogfights" look better and more realistic. Still, with excellent acting, an engaging script and a nice history lesson, it's well worth seeing.

By the way, some of what occurs in the show can also be seen in the excellent Kirk Douglas film "The Heroes of Telemark"--and is mostly covered in episode 6 of the series.

This decade or so, Norway has created several series depicting life and events during WW II in Norway, under German annexation, but still different way than in e.g. Central or Eastern Europe. But still, people had to make hard choices, and very often you were between rock and hard place, trying to see/predict a bigger picture and "sniff" potential outcomes. Kampen om tungtvannet gives a broad overview, through different angles and participants, of a successful, yet controversial operation (thus, in my opinion, the UK title The Saboteurs is not felicitous), with many real episodes and characters, performed by good character actors (more as a team, no one really sticks out unnecessarily). It is also to my liking that characters of different nationals were played by respective representatives, so different languages heard are always correct and without accent. Well, the run of scenes is not always smooth, some of them are excessive and tensions are sometimes fading, but still - this series is worth watching, at least for Northern Europeans interested in the events during WW II not commonly known.

For us Scandinavians there is a lot of familiar faces in the cast. They really brought the big guns for this one. Casting is great, acting is superb and we all in all get the same from this series as we got from Max Manus, maybe even more. It's based upon what actually happened, with some artistic freedoms of course. But largely sticks to the story. If you can somewhat understand Norwegian or enjoy foreign cinema/tv series (not in english), you should definitely give this a try.

A variety of languages, with subtitles as needed. Dramatic but in keeping with history. Outstanding sense of the challenging times of WW2 & the decisions made by different groups & individuals, courage & compromise. Risking life & decisions made to protect others & self as the Nazi noose extended itself into Norway.

The Heavy Water War is a long awaited update of one of the most significant and interesting sabotage actions during the Second World War. Previously filmed in many documentaries and as feature dramatizations. First in 1948 in a French-Norwegian co- production, just a few years after the war, with many of the saboteurs playing themselves, "Kampen om tungtvannet". Secondly in 1965 in the Anthony Mann-production "Heroes of Telemark" (with Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris in main roles), and last in the great and too forgotten Canadian feature film and also miniseries "A man called Intrepid" in 1979 (starring David Niven, Michael Yorke and Barbara Hershey).

This mini-series has been very much awaited, as a fresh update though the older ones are still all very see-worthy and recommended dramatizations. All filmed on location in Rjukan, where the sabotages took place, with mainly local youngsters doing the main sabotage job under allied commando. Currently there's at lest three other projects being developed, with a rumored Michael Bay-production ("Sabotage"?), and a 10 episodes TV-series "Telemark" under the direction of Danny Boyle, obviously with different angles of this fantastic epic true war story. There's also made many documentaries, most known the ones from BBC.

It's been 10 years in the planning, this series by production company Filmkameratene, with John M. Jacobsen's sturdy work of getting in place the financing. Finally succeeding when changing the concept from a feature movie to a mini-series with Norwegian national broadcaster NRK as the company with enough means to ascertain a quality production, which felt both important and necessary.

The script writer has based this story on a different angle than the earlier ones. The four sabotage actions is a common basis, but here we at the time go behind both the allied and German actions around creating the world's first atomic bomb. We also follow the local Norwegian resistance, as well as the company view, which has been very controversial stuff for years after the sabotages took place. More about the many moral dilemmas, and a bit less focus on the heroics of young students.

We start off in 1933 when Werner Heisenberg is rewarded the Noble Prize in physics in Stockholm, and is greeted by fellow Danish colleague Niels Bohr. Celebrating this, Heisenberg is later called in for interrogation by the Nazi's which accuse him of being gay. He is almost sent to the front, only saved by top connections. Why did the Nazi need the heavy water (D2O), and where to get it? It's all explained, while we meet young professor Leif Tronstad, which is the main role from Norwegian side, the inside brains of the technology as well as the detailed planning of the sabotage. He is a very much unsung hero, now being pulled out into the light, brilliantly played by Espen Klouman-Høiner. We also see another main role, the facility director Bjørn Henriksen (a fabulous Dennis Storhøi), which is a fictive emerging of three real company directors juggling between Allied (mainly French) and German interest in the new discovery of nuclear physics during the 30'ies, towards the fatal 2nd World War started by the Nazi regime.

Well played in all roles, we early understand this series is about to fulfill the needs of a proper, true and interesting dramatization of this epic story. We all know that the Americans beat the others in finalizing the misunderstood importance of creating an atomic bomb With European development-help. But it's also easy to understand the immense fear of the Allied forces had towards the Adolf Hitler and his extreme right wing dictatorship getting hold of the bomb. The fear of us all seeing an all together different world under the rule of the Nazi dream the Third Reich world leadership. No short cuts have been taken, to assure our need for credibility, since the series is in all correct native languages, so prepare to be reading subtitles, if not dubbed in your country. If you ask me, it's a big relief that the Germans speak German, the Norwegians speak Norwegian as of course it's very often English amongst the allied forces.

I wouldn't be afraid to say that this production is setting a new standard for Norwegian TV-drama, brilliantly casted and directed by Per-Olav Sørensen, very keen on giving this important history lesson a proper updated reference in World history. Already before airing all episodes in Norway, the series is sold to large markets for national TV-distribution in the USA, Spain, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany, a lot of markets will follow in the following months. After airing the series hold record numbers for viewing of a dramatized series in Norway, with a up to 65% marked share of viewers at the time Sunday nights.

It's without doubt going to mean a lot of newfound interest in the famed actions, and incredible heroism of young Norwegian resistance movement, as well as well planned and performed allied actions in the little mountain town Rjukan, which in June 2015 eagerly awaits a decision from Unesco-headquarter Paris if the modern industry revolution site Rjukan - Notodden - Møsvatn area is going to be a future Unesco world heritage site for future generations to experience. What a great story and history this is! Be sure to catch it when it's on in your country, and enjoy the best telling of the story, so far!