The Red Sea Diving Resort, written and directed by Gideon Raff - 8.7 out of 10

The Red Sea Diving Resort, written and directed by Gideon Raff
8.7 out of 10


Although much less known than the Entebbe operation - a very good, recent film on that subject is reviewed at realini.blogspot.com - The 
Red Sea Diving Resort was the cover for a much bigger rescue plan, that involved in the end hundreds of Ethiopian Jews, trying to reach Jerusalem.

Sudan has been until a few months ago a dictatorship and it is not clear what the new deal made with the military junta will bring, but in 1979, when this story takes place, it was getting much worse, with executions, abuse of women, children and many innocent civilians.
Officials are used with this continuous attack on human rights, so much so that when the person in charge at the Ministry of 'Turisam' - that's what they have written on the official sign, outside their offices - talks with the investors aka Mossad agents willing to take the decrepit Diving Resort and offer it as a touristic attraction, he seems unperturbed by frequent shots...

When the foreigners are puzzled by the gunfire, the Sudanese official dismissed the noise...

'The president has many enemies...
Now he has a few more'

He wants a large bribe in order to allow the investors to take a defunct resort and resuscitate it, but they would negotiate and eventually, the host would say...

We have finished the business in the oriental manner, let us celebrate in the western way...
And he takes out a bottle of alcohol that was presumably illegal.

Chris Evans will be remembered by large audiences for his roles in the Avengers movies, but I rather see him in films like this one, where he is cast as Ari Levinson, the Mossad operative who leads the action.
He would gather a dream team, people he has to travel to Belize, among other places, to convince to participate in a very dangerous game of cat and mouse with the Sudanese military and the militias, some of which have been known to cannibalize their victims.

Mossad leaders are opposed first, then reluctant to continue with what looks like a preposterous plan...to buy a resort, smuggle a multitude of Ethiopian Jewish refugees to that place and then have them transported to a ship nearby, with the help of Navy Seals.
The Israeli military have some of the best trained and fighting forces in the world.

They have proved that in numerous occasions, Entebbe, The Six Days War and in the permanent battle that takes place at and within their borders.
The Red Sea Diving Resort is just another example, where the Mossad agents have to fight a vicious enemy, cruel and abominable.

When the leader of the militia wants to find who helps the refugees escape and he does not have an immediate answer, he starts shooting women and everyone else in sight.
It is one of the massacres perpetuated by lunatics, monsters in Africa and elsewhere.

But this film is also about courage, dedication, role models, Supermen and the Wonder Woman, brave individuals that face death and help crowds of helpless refugees escape and find a home in Israel.