Submergence is a love story that
takes the movie viewers into the extremely different worlds of
two protagonists, Danielle Flinders (Alicia Vikander) and James
More (James McAvoy). They meet by chance in a remote hotel in
Normandy where they both prepare for a dangerous mission. They
fall in love almost against their will, but soon recognize in
each other the love of their lives. When they have to separate,
they find out that James works for the British Secret Service.
He’s involved in a mission in Somalia to track down a source for
suicide bombers infiltrating Europe. Danielle ‘Danny’ Flinders
is a bio-mathematician working on a deep sea diving project to
support her theory about the origin of life on the planet. Soon,
they are worlds apart. James is taken hostage by Jihadist
fighters and has no way of contacting Danny, and she has to go
down to the bottom of the ocean in her submersible, not even
knowing if James is still alive…
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James McAvoy as
James More
who is involved in a mission
in Africa |
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About the production
Wim Wenders (The Salt of the Earth, Wings of
Desire) directs this romantic thriller based on the novel
“Submergence” by J.M. Ledgard from a screenplay by Erin Dignam (The
Last Face). Submergence stars James McAvoy (X-Men: Dark Phoenix,
Split, X-Men: Apocalypse, Atonement, The Last King of Scotland)
and Academy Award-winner Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl, Ex
Machina). Cameron Lamb produced the film, along with Wim Wenders
and Uwe Kiefer for Neue Road Movies in Germany, Jean-Baptiste
Babin for Backup Studio in France and Juan Gordon for Morena
Films in Spain.
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Alicia Vikander as Danielle
Flinders beside James More
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A multi-layered story that embraces some of
life‘s most profound concerns, Submergence is based on the novel
by J.M. Ledgard. A journalist who covered society and politics
across Africa for The Economist magazine, Ledgard was inspired
by his experiences living and working in Somalia.
“I was very interested in our lack of perspective of the planet
we live on,” he says. “It is much bigger than we think it is,
much more complicated than we think it is. At the same time it
is much harder and tougher as well. I have always been obsessed
with the oceans and the idea that there is clearly a lot more
life in the ocean than there is on the surface, particularly the
microbial life of bacteria, viruses and algae at very deep
levels. This life outweighs all other life on the planet. It is
older, it is tougher and stronger. And whatever happens to human
beings, that life is going to keep on going. Of course we now
know that we evolved from the bottom of the ocean; that is where
life began, deep in the oceans.
The locations
With the cast set, Submergence began its challenging shooting
schedule in March 2016 in several difficult locations around the
world, including Toulon, Brest and the Normandy coast in France,
Spain, Germany, Djibouti and the Faroe Islands. Studio work was
done in Berlin and Madrid. Behind the scenes collaborators
included cinematographer Benoît Debie, production designer
Thierry Flamand, editor Toni Froschhammer, costume designer Bina
Daigeler and composer Fernando Velazquez.
Director: Wim Wenders
Camera: Benoît Debie
Cast: Alicia Vikander, James McAvoy, Celyn Jones
Writer: Erin Dignam (based on the novel by Jonathan M. Ledgard)
Producer: Cameron Lamb
Production: Lila 9th Productions, Backup Studio, Neue Road
Movies, Morena Films
Editing: Toni Froschhammer