The Red Sea Diving Resort is a 2019 historical drama about Israel Mossad agents attempts to rescue Ethiopian Jewish refugees in Sudan in 1977.
We’re a fickle bunch, modern movie audiences, okay with a movie that’s based on actual history so long as it has incredible action and bigger-than-life heroes for us to root for. That’s pretty much where we’re at in writer and director Gideon Raff‘s latest drama The Red Sea Diving Resort, a film ‘inspired by true event’ that is a powerful human story certainly worth telling, wrapped around recent conventional thriller dressing that leaves it just out of reach in making its point.
It’s 1977 and Ari Levinson (Chris Evans) is an Israeli Mossad agent working in Sudan, struggling to get persecuted Ethiopian Jewish refugees out of the war torn country. After a heroic effort to guide a small group free, led by Kebede Bimro (Michael K. Williams), they are arrested near the border and Ari is sent back to his homeland. There, he devises a clever plan with his supervisor, Ethan Levin (Ben Kingsley), one he thinks will be a smarter way to save these people. They restore and open a once abandoned resort on the Sudanese coast, using it to smuggle refugees to secret ships just offshore. Problem is, the resort becomes somewhat popular and successful while local authority Colonel Abdel Ahmed (Chris Chalk) grows increasingly suspicious.
Israeli filmmaker Raff is a good choice to helm the story, his roots and obvious passion to get this little known piece of history some exposure deserving some credit. He puts most of his efforts on Ari and his team, though gives some of attention to the people they are rescuing, helping shape a bit of our sympathy. The way it’s all presented though sort of it gives it a this-can’t-possibly-true vibe, something many in the genre tend to lean on heavily – and the movie constantly throws in our face.
It’s less about the plight of the people and more about the operation to set them free, which allows it to stay kind of safe, even as the plot never forgets what it’s really about. There really isn’t much about it that feels authentic, beginning with a contrived one man show that sees Ari risking his life to save a little boy. Did it happen in real life? Who knows, but the movie works to let it set the tone with Evans, who is of course well established as a hero already, easily taking up the mantle as he rounds up a quirky team of misfits to get the job done. This twists the horrors of the movie’s opening moments to become a somewhat rote spy mission story we’ve seen plenty of times before.
Still, Evans is almost unnaturally likable but it’s not enough to give this any kind of purpose, with him spouting lines like, “We need you on this one.” It’s hopelessly generic, which is pretty much how the whole thing comes off. It lacks any substance or investment in the history, seemingly undecided if this should be a fun caper or true exposé about a a genuine fight for humanity. Perhaps the best thing going is that it might encourage one to go find out more.