HS Culture 9.11.2000 - <I>Estonia</I> accident and enquiry to be subject of feature film

The sinking of the car ferry Estonia in September 1994 and the subsequent enquiry into the causes of the disaster are to be the subject of a full-length movie. The film, provisionally entitled Code: Baltic Storm, will star Julia Ormond and Martin Sheen.

One of the producers mentioned for the film is the German journalist Jutta Rabe, who was among those aranging the controversial diving operations to the wreck of the Estonia in August this year. "The film will deal with a female journalist who decides to investigate the causes of the sinking", Rabe commented to the Swedish evening paper Expressen on Wednesday.

Apparently the storyline has been written by Rabe herself and the Dane Henning Witte together with Finnish writer Kaj Holmberg. The film will claim that the sinking of the Estonia - which resulted in the deaths of more than 850 of the passengers and crew on board - was the result of an international conspiracy to cover the smuggling of arms.

The film will be shot in Germany, Denmark, and Malta from the beginning of February next year.

The diving operations that took place earlier this year - and which led subsequently to arrest warrants being issued in Sweden against US millionaire Gregg Bemis Jr. and Jutta Rabe - were covered exhaustively in these pages. Links below provide a start.