Starring: Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl, Eddie Marsan, Nonso Anozie, Juan Pablo Raba
Director: Jose Padilha
Release date: 11th May 2018
It’s June in 1976 and 4 hijackers have control of an Air France plane flying from Tel Aviv to Paris, via Athens. They tell the passengers that if they are peaceful and compliant, then no harm will come to them. They land the plane in Bengasi, Libya and make their plans. Flashback to 6 months earlier and a Yemenis training camp where the initial planning takes place..
The plane is then flown to Entebbe, Uganda and the passengers are removed from the plane. The hijackers are generally ‘friendly’ and don’t really have any intention of harming people, but unfortunately a small number of them are more driven in their goal. Their plan is to get terrorists being held in Israeli prisons released. The Israeli Government, after much debate, decide to take matters into their own hands and send in an elite commando unit to try and free the hostages.. what happened next is well documented..
Based on the true story of the 250 passengers hijacked on their flight from Tel Aviv to Paris, in July of 1976, ‘Entebbe’ tells of 2 German radicalists, Brigitte Kuhlmann and Wilfried Böse, who took over the flight while it was on a stopover in Greece. Their ultimate goal was to make use of the capture of 84 Israelis and use them to try and negotiate with the Israeli Government over problems they wanted addressing on behalf of the Palestinians. They convinced the very dangerous Idi Amin, Dictator of Uganda to help them with their plight.
As with most movies of this ilk, ‘Entebbe’ is a gritty and at some points disturbing portrayal of actual historical events. These films are generally, as a rule, very strict in their telling of the story. With a subject as touchy as the Palestinian crisis, the events must be played out carefully and as close to fact as possible.
I did enjoy ‘Entebbe’, but political ‘dramas’ always feel a tiny bit samey to me… There is a fantastic cast of actors though, including the extremely talented Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl and one of my favourites, Eddie Marsan. He’s a brilliant character actor and you know that as soon as his name’s mentioned as being part of the cast, you’re going to see something pretty great.
If you like dark, gritty dramas then definitely give ‘Entebbe’ a watch. It’s also kinda cool to watch what would become a historical event, play out on a big screen in front of you. Really makes you wonder what was actually going through these peoples minds at the time. Give it a watch!
Overall: 7.5/10
