The Place of the Dead (1997)

The Place Of The Dead is a 1997 television movie directed by Suri Krishnamma and written by Jeff Pope. It is a 'true story' account of a British Army expedition in Malaysia that made headlines in 1994 when it went badly wrong. The expedition was to climb up Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Malaysia, and descend down the steep cliff faces on the other side into Low's Gully and then trek through the valley. The group of ten split up, with the fitter members of the team continuing on in order to keep to their rations and on the assumption that the less fit members had given up on the descent. The less able members meanwhile, carried on assuming that the fitter members were waiting for them.

Synopsis

The film largely tells the story of the expedition itself, but occasionally flashes to the present where the members of expedition are giving evidence in a military court. The enquiry is to determine which members were at fault for the failure of the expedition, meaning that the story is told in flashback as the men remember it. Initially, the soldiers are shown training while a voiceover by expedition leader Lt. Col. Robert Niell (Simon Dutton) tells us that there will be five British Army soldiers, two Territorial Army soldiers and three Hong Kong Chinese soldiers on the expedition.

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