Critically Acclaimed Film “War Sailor” Adapted to Netflix Series

Netflix has announced a limited series adaption of War Sailor, one of Norway’s biggest theatrical hits from last year.

War Sailor is written and directed by Gunnar Vikene (Vegas, Borderline, Pørni) and is based on true stories of Norwegian merchant sailors and their families during and after World War II. The 3-episode limited series will premiere on Netflix on April 5th and stars Kristoffer Joner (The Wave, Mission Impossible), Pal Sverre Hagen (Kon-Tiki, Exit), and Ine Marie Wilmann (Troll, Exit) among others.

The famous Norwegian screenwriter and director Gunnar Vikene’s dream will become a reality: ”War Sailor was originally written both as a feature film and as a mini-series, and I couldn’t really let go of the initial idea of ​​telling the story in both formats. When we were editing the feature film, we realized that a lot of the footage didn’t fit in the well-over two-hour-long feature film. Fortunately, Netflix accepted the challenge, and throughout the autumn we worked on making a three-hour mini-series – with several new scenes to be able to show the WHOLE story not just to the Norwegian public, but also the rest of the world.”

The series will follow Alfred Garnes, who’s a working-class sailor, who has recently become the father of a third child. He and his childhood friend Sigbjørn Kvalen are working on a merchant ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when World War II breaks out. They are unarmed civilians on the front lines of a war they never asked to join. The two men struggle for survival in a spiral of violence and death, where at any moment German submarines may attack their valuable vessels. The war sailors have one goal: to survive–and to return home.

Meanwhile, Alfred’s wife Cecilia struggles through the war alone in Bergen, raising three children on her own, not knowing whether she will ever see Alfred again. When British aircrafts attempt to bomb the German submarine bunker in Bergen, they instead hit the primary school at Laksevåg and civilian homes at Nøstet, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths. When the news reaches Alfred and Wally in Canada, they wonder if they have anything left at home to return to.

The series features new and never-seen-before footage and will launch on Netflix on April 5th.