Kon-Tiki is a Norwegian historical film that dramatizes the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition led by Thor Heyerdahl.
The prevailing theory of the time was that Polynesia had been settled by travellers from the west. Heyerdahl, an ethnographer adventurer endeavored to prove his theory that people from South America settled the Islands in pre-Columbian times.
Heyerdahl and five other men crossed the Pacific Ocean in a balsawood raft in an attempt to prove his theory. The film tells the story of the 101-day trip across 8,000 kilometres and addresses the origin of the idea, the preparations and the events on the trip. The re-enactment of the voyage, from the coast of Peru to the Polynesian Islands, portrays the challenges of storms, sharks and other dangers of the open sea.
While much of the film is historically accurate, both screenwriter Petter Skavlan and director Joachim Ronning admit to making the story more exciting for their two-hour feature film. The film was nominated for the best foreign language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards and a Golden Globe for best foreign language film award at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards.
Join Friends of the Cinema on this exciting and interesting voyage, which runs at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at the Prince Charles Theatre.
—FRIENDS OF THE CINEMA