Kings Bay is a fictional thriller based upon some coincidences occurring around the same time as the cold war was on it's heights in the start of the 60'ies. The accident in the coal mine in Kings Bay in Spitsbergen, in the Arctic Sea, is here told as an allegedly sabotage, made by Russians as a cold war warning towards Norway against having too good relations with USA.
And as such the film functions very well for more than an hour. We get to know the middle aged journalist Harrieth, on the downhill of her career as a journalist, very well played by Norwegian artist and singer Kari Bremnes in her first ever movie role. Amazingly she tends to play better than some of the more known actors in this film, which is quite hard to grasp.
The film is cold and wintery, and is filled with great pictures from the beautiful city called "Paris of the North" Tromsoe. Tromsoe functions in more than one way almost as a main character, and does well.
This film has come out of growing Nothern Norwegian film milieu, and is quite well done. Photography is splendid and quite beautifully done by Gaute Gunnari, which has 15 other movies wit good footage work in his catalog. A bit more work with the manuscript, dialog and some of the instruction could have put this cold war crime thriller up. The film manages to surprise a couple of time, but is otherwise quite conventional. I guess that writer and director Stig Svendsen should have had some assistance, at least in the writing, maybe also in actor instructions. It's quite a pity to see that this i lacking in what could have been a really chilling cold war thriller.
What I really was most disappointed about, was that not even one of Kari Bremnes sings were featured. She should have several that should fit the atmosphere in this thriller.
Still, it's not that bad. I think it's timely to land on a 6/10, as it's crisper and better than most thrillers shown on TV.
