In 13 Lives, Ron Howard Brings the Incredible Tham Luang Cave Rescue to Screen

June 2018. A team of twelve Thai footballers, teenagers between 11 and 16 years old, and their coach, barely older, take refuge, following a rainstorm, in the cave of Tham Luang. The rising waters of an underground river force the team to move ever further into the cavity, until they find themselves trapped 4 km from the entrance. An incredible rescue operation is launched by the Thai government with help from all over the world, including a hundred high-level divers. It lasts eighteen days, between pumping sessions, attempts to make their way through the damaged guts… And allows the thirteen youngsters to be found safe and sound – while deploring the death of two divers.

Widely covered by the media, it kept viewers spellbound. Including filmmaker Ron Howard (cocoon, Da Vinci Code). “ With my wife, we were really glued to the screen and attentiveremembers the American director. When I read the script, it obviously told everything I remembered but also so much more. The story included several levels, the heroic dimension, which was a very exciting cinematic challenge, as well as the involvement of the Thais. I had to reflect this culture as well as possible, especially with a large part of the dialogues in Thai. I told myself that I could take something really visceral out of this story. »

The man has already made documentaries on the Beatles or Pavarotti, tackled the Apollo 13 disaster in fiction mode. He therefore knows how to approach reality in a triple approach, informative, personal and emotional. If he stages, with efficiency and suspense, the rescue in the cave, epicenter of the drama, he also endeavors to tell the emotional journey of the rescuers like that of the Thai families playing on the empathy of the spectator.

Read also“It’s a very strange role”: Jean Reno, a larger-than-life robot in All those things we didn’t say to each other

All in all, a beautiful uplifting story. “ When people work together, amazing things can happenhe continues. And it’s a phenomenal case study. “. A vision shared by two of its main actors, Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell, who play British rescuers. “ The way we worked as a team reflected what we were describing of the actual rescue. We were very bonded, it was a selfless and selfless effort “, confides the first. “ We felt both the burden and the honorconnects the second. We had a responsibility to honor the spirits of those who survived but also the lives of those who are no more. “.