An immersive and enthralling display of filmmaking skill and lump in throat storytelling, Dunkirk features director Christopher Nolan at his leanest and most intense.

With his 10th feature film, Christopher Nolan has proven to be a filmmaker who continues to push the boundaries of large scale moviemaking. From superhero blockbusters to outer space adventures, Nolan delivers films epic in size and look, utilising the best in visual and sound to deliver experiences of high calibre spectacle, and all without a 3D goggle or any other cheap novelty in sight.

However, Nolan had yet to go the war movie route, a genre primed for that crisp Nolan touch. That is remedied with the release of Dunkirk, a movie set during the Dunkirk evacuations of World War II, where for over a week almost 400,000 British and allied troops awaited evacuation on the beaches of Dunkirk, France, as the German Air Force struck from above.

Nolan’s film presents the evacuation, otherwise known as the “Miracle of Dunkirk”, in 3 different narrative threads: the first focuses on young British private Tommy (Fion Whithead) and other British troops as they attempt to secure passage from the beach; the second on Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) and his family as they join the large contingent of British civilian ships duty bound to help with the evacuation; and the third on Farrier (Tom Hardy) a Royal Air Force pilot dispatched to defend his fellow soldiers from air attack.

Nolan weaves his different narrative timelines within one another to create a unique retelling of an important moment in British war history. As seen previously in Memento and Inception, Nolan has a knack for messing with traditional linear structures, and it is a practice which the immensely popular filmmaker has perfected to create a tonally and sensory example of pitch perfect cinematic chaos, as the viewer is sucked in to this tense and horrific chapter from the annals of World War II and are not released until the films satisfying, tear inducing conclusion.

Shot with IMAX cameras on 65 mm film stock (Nolan is notoriously against digital film) the imagery of Dunkirk is breathtaking in its epic size and crisp in its photography, with cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (Interstellar) building upon his already impressive Oscar winning pedigree as one of the best DOP’s working today. This is matched by an immensely brilliant score from long time Nolan collaborator Hans Zimmer, who delivers compositions of immense power that reach stratospheric heights when combined with the awe-inspiring, spine shuddering sound effects that is front runner for both sound categories at the next Oscars.

For all the technical brilliance which Dunkirk displays, it is also a film of immense humanity. The theme of “war is hell” is one which has successfully been depicted on screen through the likes of the seminal Saving Private Ryan and last year’s Hacksaw Ridge (amongst many others). Yet Dunkirk hits all together different realms of portraying the horrors and heroism of combat, realms which will shake viewers to their very souls as men young and old, solider and civilian, all answer the call to save the defenders of their country from death by above.

First hand testimony from those on Dunkirk spoke of how they could see England from the shores which could possibly be there final resting place. Imagine the sadness, the anger, the dismay of being in such a horrific situation? Now imagine what you would feel when witnessing the sight of your fellow countrymen risking their lives by sailing their vessels - those meant for weekend sailing and fishing trips -  coming to your rescue?

Nolan captures it all. The chaos. The death. The heroism. The humanity. The miracle. In doing so he has delivered a film of immense power, that no doubt will be heralded as one of the best of its kind in many, many years to come.