Those familiar with the fate of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea during a 2000 naval exercise, will already know how Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Command” ends. Perhaps that’s one reason the film, based on a 2002 book by the journalist Robert Moore about the incident, prioritizes emotion over narrative — focusing on the tension, solidarity, and desperation of the vessel’s crew, even as it skims past story developments that may help us better understand what, exactly, is happening.

As the officer in charge, and a career Navy man in love with the sea, Matthias Schoenaerts brings a melancholy physicality to his part: He moves with the grace of a hero, but has the sad eyes of a doomed romantic. Something similar could be said for Colin Firth, playing the British commodore whose offers of help are rejected by the Russian authorities.