Retro Film Review: Baltic Storm (2003)

2 months ago (Edited)

(source: tmdb.org)

James Cameron, during his promotion of Titanic, liked to describe the 1912 sinking of the world's most modern and luxurious passenger liner as a moment that challenged the general belief in the omnipotence of modern technology, paving the way for even more heart-breaking disillusionments of the 20th Century. One such disillusionment occurred on September 28th, 1994 when the ferry boat M/S Estonia sank on the route between Tallinn and Stockholm, carrying 852 people to the bottom of the Baltic Sea. This incident proved to be the worst naval disaster in recent European history, and the victims' families had to cope not only with the unimaginable failure of sophisticated technology and precautions designed to prevent such tragedies but also with how governments handled the investigation. Numerous unanswered questions led to a multitude of conspiracy theories, with the most well-known being based on a book by German investigative reporter Jutta Rabe. A fictionalized adaptation of her work became Baltic Storm, a 2003 thriller written and directed by Reuben Leder.

Opening with a prologue that reminds viewers of the end of the Cold War and the emergence of newly independent countries like Estonia, the plot introduces Jutta Rabe's alter ego in the form of Berlin TV reporter Julia Reuter (portrayed by Greta Scacchi). In September 1994, she receives a tip from Gehrig (played by Dieter Laser), a former Stasi official and her long-time informant, about a top Russian weapons scientist and valuable cargo of top-secret weapons being smuggled from Estonia to Sweden aboard M/S Estonia. Upon learning this, Russian intelligence services dispatch a covert team that kills the scientist and detonates explosives on the ship. Only a few individuals survive, including Swedish lawyer Erik Westermark (played by Jürgen Prochnow), whose son went missing. Westermark later swears he saw some survivors who were officially declared missing while recovering in hospital. He and Julia join forces to uncover the truth, but their efforts are hindered from all sides, notably by the Estonian and Swedish governments, which go to great lengths to restrict access to the wreck and suppress evidence of an explosion.

The Estonia disaster was a genuine and deeply traumatic event for the Baltic nations, particularly small Estonia. This is poignantly highlighted in documentary footage that forms some of the most powerful and moving segments of Baltic Storm. Regrettably, these clips only serve to make the remainder of the film appear mundane and exploitative. The attempt to link these events with the sale of former Soviet technology, ex-KGB hitmen, silencing inconvenient witnesses, and a conspiracy even more sinister than those depicted in The X-Files is unconvincing, especially when Donald Sutherland's appearance seems solely to portray a bogeyman-like US government figure. Rather than presenting a compelling case against official narratives, Baltic Storm comes across as a collection of clichés typical of cheap B-movies. The direction is particularly lacklustre, employing irritating techno music for action sequences; however, nothing quite matches the abysmal levels of acting. Prochnow, who more or less sleepwalks through his role, emerges as one of the better performers in this production. Ultimately, Baltic Storm is likely to achieve precisely what its creators did not intend - instead of offering an accurate or at least plausible account of what transpired in the Baltic region three decades ago, this film diminishes the memory of victims by reducing them to convenient plot devices in an uninspired B-movie. Baltic Storm stands as another example reinforcing the old adage that history repeats itself first as tragedy then as farce. In 2023 the same events were covered more extensively in Estonia, six-part miniseries which became the most expensive work in history of Finnish television.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: Original version of the review is available here