The War Below drops viewers into the mud and dark of the First World War, where the fighting happens underground as often as above it.
What is The War Below about?
Set during the First World War, the story follows a company of British miners pulled from civilian life and handed shovels instead of rifles. Their assignment: dig beneath no man's land toward the German trenches and pack the tunnels with explosives. Above ground, the front around Messines has stalled into a bloody standoff neither side can break. Below it, claustrophobia, flooding, and enemy counter-tunnels turn every meter of progress into its own quiet battle. The film treats the mining companies as their own theatre of the war, distinct from the trench combat more commonly dramatized, and follows the men as the pressure of the task and the closeness of the tunnels wear on them long before any detonation.
About the cast
The ensemble is led by Sam Hazeldine and Tom Goodman-Hill, with Elliot James Langridge, Kris Hitchen, Sam Clemmett, Sonny Ashbourne Serkis, and Joseph Steyne rounding out the company of miners and officers. Director J.P. Watts keeps the cast largely confined to tunnels and dugouts, letting the ensemble carry long stretches without wide combat staging.
Context & significance
The War Below is a 2021 British production shot in Georgia, part of a wave of recent films revisiting the tunnel warfare of the Western Front, a dimension of the First World War that gets far less screen time than the trenches themselves. Companies of former miners were, historically, recruited by armies specifically for this underground work, and their engineering became a serious factor in operations such as the one the film's setting evokes. The drama leans on that specialist, almost industrial side of the war rather than large-scale battle sequences.
Watching The War Below on Ktime
The War Below is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing, so Persian-speaking audiences can follow the underground sequences and dialogue-heavy tension without subtitles. Streaming requires a K-Time account login; the film's page itself is free to browse. K-Time's Farsi interface makes it easy to find alongside other war and historical dramas in the catalogue for viewers in the Iranian diaspora.