Bangkok-born, Thai-Irish writer-director Tom Waller has beaten several planned Hollywood projects in the race to dramatise last summer’s global headline-grabbing rescue of the Wild Boars boys football team from Tham Luang cave. They were trapped with their coach for 18 days during the monsoon season. Far more than just a plucky domestic production, The Cave captures the complex character of the massive international rescue effort by having several of the real-life volunteer heroes from around the world play themselves. You’ll be cheering on local engineering expert Pooyai Tun as he battles bureaucratic odds to deliver crucial water draining turbo pumps in the nick of time, while Irish cave diving specialist Jim Warny ensures that the film’s claustrophobic underwater scenes exude a clammy docudrama authenticity.

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Get your tickets for the 2019 BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express from 12 September at bfi.org.uk/lff or call 020 7928 3232 (10:00 – 20:30 daily).