On June 23, 2018, after a soccer training session under a bright Thai sun, a team of 12 young players aged 11 to 16 and their assistant coach decided to go explore the Tham Luang Nang Non cave, not far from their house. However, the rainy season arrived unexpectedly, trapping the entire team in the cave which was flooded in places.
Both a duty to remember and an ode to humanity, the American-British feature film Thirteen Lives looks back on this dramatic event which lasted 18 days and which was widely publicized around the globe. Faithful to the story, which does not need to be added to it to become gripping, the film highlights all the resources and humans who were mobilized for this rescue operation. In total, more than 5,000 volunteers from 17 countries participated in the relief effort.
Deliberately without archives (which are not lacking, however, thanks to the media) and with some lengths, the film makes up for it with its illustration of the cave. At several moments, a map appears, which allows the public to measure the extent and complexity of this dive lasting several hours.
Although the production tells this story from an angle that benefits it, thus moving away a little from reality – the British and the Americans occupy a major, even heroic, role in it in comparison with the others -, the film recalls above all the international cooperation required by this tragedy as well as its exceptional and historic character.
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