Saboteurs in the Ice - Operation Heavy Water
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | Saboteurs in the Ice - Operation Heavy Water |
| Original title | Kampen om tungtvannet |
| Country of production | Norway , Denmark , United Kingdom |
| original language | Norwegian , English , German , Danish |
| year | 2015 |
| Production company |
Filmkameratene A / S, Headline Pictures, Sebasto Film & TV |
| length | 45 minutes |
| Episodes | 6 ( list ) |
| genre | Action, thriller, war |
| Director | Per-Olav Sørensen |
| idea | Petter S. Rosenlund |
| production | Kari Moen Kristiansen |
| music | Kristian Eidnes Andersen |
| camera | John Christian Rosenlund |
| First broadcast | January 4, 2015 on NRK1 |
| German-language first broadcast |
January 2, 2018 on Das Erste |
| occupation | |
| |
Saboteurs in the Ice - Operation Heavy Water is a TV miniseries from 2015, created as a Norwegian - Danish - British co-production. It is set during World War II and is based on real events. In six 45-minute episodes, she tells of the acts of sabotage carried out by the Norwegian resistance to prevent the German occupiers from producing and using the heavy water that the National Socialists needed to develop an atomic bomb . In 2018 the series was also broadcast on German television.
action
After the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany , the National Socialist leadership ordered a doubling of the production of heavy water in the Hydro power station near Rjukan . The Norwegian professor Leif Tronstad fled to England to warn the Allies that this step could help the Nazis to build a German atomic bomb . Trondstad contacts the Ministry of War and a plan to destroy the power station is drawn up. In Rjukan, the new power plant director Bjørn Henriksen is confronted with sabotage of the heavy water production plant. The Grouse action, devised by the Norwegian resistance in cooperation with the British military leadership , is a disaster because the Norwegians who jumped by parachute land several kilometers away from their actual destination. The Americans insist on bombing the heavy water factory, but Trondstad convinces the Allies to send a team of Norwegians instead. In the meantime, Nobel Prize winner Werner Heisenberg promises a breakthrough in the development of a National Socialist atomic bomb in Germany. He was then appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics . Meanwhile, the Gunnerside team is successful in damaging the hydro factory, but the Germans start a large-scale search for the saboteurs and have the heavy water production facilities rebuilt immediately. Heisenberg realizes that he has to continue his research without heavy water. When the Americans notice that the Germans are rebuilding the factory, they decide to bomb the facility, which is only minimally damaged. The Germans then decided to move heavy water production from Norway to Germany. The Allies commission the remaining members of the Gunnerside team to sink the ferry that the Germans use to transport the production facility from Rjukan across a lake. From the client's point of view, the mission is successful because the ferry is being sunk. When it goes down, however, a number of people die, including civilians.
production
The production studios involved in the making of the series include the Norwegian company Filmkameratene , for which the series was the first ever television drama series, the Danish studio Sebasto Film and the British studio Headline Pictures . The work was commissioned by the Norwegian state television company Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK), which, like the Swedish film company Svensk Filmindustri, was involved in the production. There was also support from the Norwegian Film Institute and the Nordisk Film & TV Fund . The budget was 9.2 million euros. October 28, 2013 and Prague were announced as the date and location for the start of shooting .
publication
When broadcast on Norwegian television, the series had over 1 million viewers in Norway and set a record for audience ratings.
From January 2 to 4, 2018, Das Erste broadcast the series in double episodes in the late evening program for the first time in German.
| No. | First broadcast ( NRK1 ) |
German language first broadcast ( Das Erste ) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan. 4, 2015 | Jan. 2, 2018 |
| 2 | Jan. 4, 2015 | Jan. 2, 2018 |
| 3 | Jan. 11, 2015 | Jan. 3, 2018 |
| 4th | Jan. 18, 2015 | Jan. 3, 2018 |
| 5 | Jan. 25, 2015 | Jan. 4, 2018 |
| 6th | Feb. 1, 2015 | Jan. 4, 2018 |
Since May 26, 2017, the series has also been available in German on DVD and Blu-ray.
criticism
German critics found that the series is not so strict about historical truth. In this context, the FAZ author referred to the factory director Bjørn Henriksen, who in reality never existed, even if his story is loosely based on that of a real Hydro director and is good for the plot. The author of Spiegel Online pointed out that the content of the conversation between Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr , which is included in the series, has not been fully recorded to this day. The series works with its structure when it comes to creating tension and atmosphere. On the other hand, she fails with the subplot around Heisenberg, the motivation of which remains completely unclear in the context of the parallel montage. In addition, the plant disregards the fact that the battle for heavy water from Norway was not decisive for the race for the atomic bomb. On the other hand, Deutschlandfunk editor Susanne Luerweg found that the series “adhered to the historically proven facts as far as possible”, showed the “ambivalence of many actors in the Second World War” and “did not paint a simple black and white picture”. Although the work contains a bit of pathos and kitsch, it is worth telling the story in this breadth as a reminder of the resistance in World War II. The actors were good and the script was successful, but the major drawbacks were “the landscape shots and the pictures of the monstrous factory in nowhere in Norway”, the ski chases seemed “almost ridiculous”.
Awards
In 2015, the Norwegian television award Gullruten received awards in six different categories: for the best television drama, the best director, the best actor ( Dennis Storhøi ), the best costume design, the best production design and the best visual effects. The series was also awarded the European Prix Italia award in 2015.
See also
Web links
- Saboteurs in the ice - Operation Heavy water in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Saboteurs in the ice - Operation Heavy Water at Fernsehserien.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Annika Pham: Anna Friel, Frank Kjosås Board Norwegian Sabotage TV Series , in: Nordisk Film & TV Fond's website on October 18, 2013, accessed on March 20, 2019
- ^ A b Matthias Hannemann: A bomb the size of this pineapple there , in: FAZ from Jan. 2, 2018, accessed on March 20, 2019
- ↑ Cathrine Elnan, Oddvin Aune: Siste episode ga seerrekord for “Kampen om tungtvannet” , in: NRK of Feb. 3, 2015, accessed on March 22, 2019
- ↑ Saboteurs in the Ice - Operation Heavy Water [TV mini-series] , in: OFDb , accessed on March 23, 2019
- ↑ Saboteurs in the Ice - Operation Heavy Water [TV mini-series] , in: OFDb , accessed on March 23, 2019
- ↑ Oliver Kaever: When the Nazis wanted to build the bomb , in: Spiegel online from Jan. 2, 2018, accessed on March 22, 2019
- ↑ Susanne Luerweg: Race against the atomic bomb , in: Deutschlandfunk from Jan. 2, 2018, accessed on March 22, 2019
- ↑ Awards , in: IMDb , accessed on March 20, 2019