“The Wolf’s Call – Decision in the Deep” from 2019 was unfortunately never released on the big screens in Germany, but only directly for home theater. That’s a shame, because in my opinion the best submarine thriller of recent times was denied the attention it deserved by a much wider audience of film fans. If you don’t know yet, you can watch the film again tonight. If you like precisely and atmospherically staged, cleverly written and first-class acting and suspense cinema, you should be in front of the television at prime time.
“The Wolf’s Call – Decision in Depth” can be seen today, December 16, 2023 at 8:15 PM on RTL 2. There will be a repeat that same evening at 2:55 am. Alternatively, the FSK-12 title is available anytime on Blu-ray, DVD or paid video-on-demand:
If you’re an Amazon Prime customer, you can watch the film there too free streaming*. All you have to do is sign up for the seven-day free trial of the well-worth-it Filmtastic channel. If you do not want to cancel again, you will pay 3.99 euros per month after the trial period.
Expect François Civil to star in “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan” in German cinemas in spring 2023. Several world-famous mimes can be seen next to him. Among them are “Pretty Best Friends”, audience favorite Omar Sy, Mathieu Kassovitz from the cult films “Hass” and “The Fabulous World of Amelie”, as well as the German star Paula Beer from “Work without an Author”, “Undine” and – one of the top local films of 2023 – “Red Sky”.
“The Wolf’s Call” on RTL 2: that’s the story
Chanteraide (civilian) has almost perfect pitch. As a sonar acoustician on board the ‘Titane’, a submarine of the French Navy, he is responsible for correctly classifying underwater sounds. He must recognize enemy ships or other dangers in a timely manner and report them to First Officer D’Orsi (Sy). The young man is extremely good at his job and that is why his superiors completely rely on him.
However, during an operation to evacuate a special spy unit off the coast of Syria, he makes an alleged mistake. The comrades can only be saved by the courageous intervention of Commander Grandchamp (Reda Kateb) at the last moment. However, the secret operation has now been exposed. This leads to a helicopter attack on the “Titans”, a global political scandal and Chanteraide’s suspension.
Determined not to accept his failure at face value, he soon begins to investigate for himself what really happened. He discovers a monstrous secret. But shortly before he can reveal this, he is recalled by D’Orsi, who has taken command of the “Titane” from the newly promoted Grandchamp. Because Russia is about to annex a Finnish island and the French government has decided to intervene…
Realism instead of Hollywood copy
“The Wolf’s Call – Decision in the Deep” was the first directorial work by screenplay and comic book writer Antonin Baudry. When the film was released in France, he said in an interview that he really wanted to try to create a realistic scenario and not just go through the codes of the genre. Especially because these were made almost exclusively in Hollywood and therefore from the US perspective.
For this reason, Baudry, who also sometimes worked as a diplomatic advisor and speechwriter for former French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, spent a full month aboard a real French Navy submarine before filming.
he said.
Baudry’s work on “The Wolf’s Call” is impressive and it will be exciting to see how the two-part feature film about Charles de Gaulle that the Parisian is currently working on develops.
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