KON-TIKI (M) (113 min)
Directed by Joachim Ronning.
Starring Pal Sverre Valheim Hagen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen.
In the years immediately after World War II, a young Norwegian scientist named Thor Heyerdahl was working in eastern Polynesia.
He was intrigued by similarities between the cultures he was studying, and what he had already seen in South America.
Heyerdahl wrote a book, outlining his theory that the Pacific had been colonised from the east, not from Asia, and then undertook an epic sea voyage to prove his theory.
Kon-Tiki is a Norwegian production, in English, that takes us on board, among all the arguments and poor behaviour that apparently characterised the voyage.
There are also an infeasible number of sharks to contend with, whenever the increasingly frazzled Heyerdahl and his crew run out things to be angry about.
Heyerdahl’s theory has been discredited by DNA evidence.
But the fact that he at least proved the journey was possible was an audacious feat.
Kon-Tiki is a handsome and spectacular film, with only occasional lapses into unintentional comedy, and it serves the story well.
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