A Letter From the Deep

A Letter From the Deep is the terribly depressing but true story about the Kursk, a Russian submarine that sank during routine maneuvers in the Barents Sea in August 2000. Cinemax’s documentary places Olga Kolesnikov at the center of the story, as she copes with the loss her husband while trying to figure out why delayed recovery efforts weren’t further scrutinized. Recovery teams had identified her husband’s body by a letter found in his uniform but inexplicably wouldn’t hand it over until several months had passed. Obviously human interest is the focus, but the mysterious rescue is introduced and then discarded with little deliberation—even after faulty efforts are blamed for up to a dozen of the deaths in the disaster. We were fine with shedding some tears—hey, it had subtitles—but just the facts would have done.