The Red Sea Diving Resort, the historical thriller starring Chris Evans, Michiel Huisman, Alessandro Nivola, Hayley Bennett and Alona Tal is more than two hours long, but it didn’t quite feel that way for me.

Set in the early 1980s, writer/director Gideon Raff’s movie is based on the true story of the international agents and brave Ethiopians who used a deserted holiday retreat in Sudan as a front to smuggle thousands of Jewish Ethiopian refugees to Israel. 

I enjoyed Raff’s film because it’s well-acted, well-paced and features a fair amount of nail-biting moments. The entire movie is based on the perspective of the main agent, Ari Levinson (Evans). As such, we unfortunately don’t get to know much about the film’s Ethiopian characters. We don’t get to know much about Ari and his team of agents either. This would have been far more noticeable and or problematic for me, had it not been for Ari and fellow agent Sammy’s (Nivola) friendship. Though still very lightly drawn, it is partly through their relationship that we get to learn a little more about two key people behind the mission. 

The Red Sea Diving Resort absolutely kept me entertained, but because of the focus on keeping the missions interesting rather than giving us clearly painted characters, I was left with many questions. Luckily, some of those questions have been answered by this article… ‘The Real Heroes of the Red Sea Diving Resort Rescue.’

Watch it and read, if you’re curious.

Happy Film Loving,

G