Landship
A tank, nine men, four hundred yards of mud — and no way out
Landship drops you into October 1917, one of the worst killing fields of the First World War. The Western Front has been locked in a four-hundred-mile stalemate for three years, and the British Army is gambling everything on a breakthrough. That gamble, in this film, rides on a single Mk IV tank — F41 "Fray Bentos" — and its nine-man crew, sent to punch through German bunkers during the Passchendaele offensive. Except the tank gets stranded yards from enemy lines. What follows isn't a battle. It's a slow, suffocating ordeal inside a steel box while the world tries to kill you from every direction.
The film runs 89 minutes. Lean. Deliberately compact. And it doesn't let you breathe.
Why Passchendaele 1917 matters — and why this tank story does too
Here's what makes Landship different from typical war films: it's not interested in heroism or strategy. It's interested in what happens to nine men when they're trapped in a space roughly the size of a wardrobe with no way out — no radio contact, no air, no hope of immediate rescue. The real tank F41 became stranded near Passchendaele in August 1917, and its crew famously held out for days under relentless fire. That historical anchor — that this actually happened — gives the film something pure invention couldn't manufacture: weight.
Director Callum Burn seems to understand that the Mk IV itself is a character. The machine was notoriously brutal to operate: deafening, scorching hot, filled with engine fumes, and nearly impossible to see out of. Burn uses that claustrophobia to trap the audience alongside the crew rather than showing you their predicament from a comfortable distance. The tension comes from almost no movement — these men can't go anywhere — and yet it never deflates.
What strikes me most is how the film generates real suspense from confinement alone. There's a moment when Captain Richardson tries to maintain radio contact with command while the crew around him visibly deteriorates from shell shock and hunger. That lands.
The cast and performances that hold it together
Vin Hawke carries the film as Captain Donald Richardson, a man who has to project authority while privately falling apart. The ensemble — David Dobson, Jack Sherlock, Matthew Canny, Micky David, Sam Dowdy, and Jeffrey Mundell — doesn't have a weak link, which matters enormously when you've got nine actors sharing a confined space. There's nowhere to hide in a tank.
Every Movie Has a Lesson awarded Landship 4 stars, calling it a tense, mud-soaked character study. Last Movie Outpost gave it 3 out of 5, praising the performances while noting some genre limitations — which is fair, honestly, because the film is very deliberately narrow in scope. It's not trying to be Dunkirk or 1917. It's trying to be something smaller and far more suffocating.
If you liked Das Boot or Beneath Hill 60 — both films that trap you inside a machine and don't let you out — you'll recognize the DNA here.
Who made this and where it landed
Landship was developed by director and co-writer Callum Burn alongside Andrew Burn (also a producer), with the film produced under Tin Hat Productions. It opened in UK cinemas on 26 June 2026. Early festival and specialty-cinema circulation has built steady awareness, though wide box-office figures aren't yet available — hard to say if that's by design or simply because the data hasn't surfaced yet.
Streaming availability has expanded since its theatrical run. Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker aggregates current listings across major platforms, which saves you hunting through multiple apps trying to figure out where it's actually available. For independent films still finding their audience, platform availability shifts quickly, so checking there first makes sense.
Where to watch Landship right now
Landship is available on major OTT services following its June 2026 UK theatrical release. Availability varies by region and updates as distribution deals change.
- Check Movie OTT for the most current breakdown — the site tracks which platforms have it in your region and whether it's free-with-ads, rental, or included with a subscription.
- If you're in the UK, check whether your existing subscriptions already cover it before paying for a rental.
- International viewers: availability differs by territory, so the tracker is your best first stop.
Should you watch it? (And how to know)
Landship isn't for everyone. It's deliberately uncomfortable, relentlessly confined, and more interested in psychological deterioration than spectacle. But if you're drawn to war films that treat their subject with historical seriousness — and that trust their cast to carry the weight without CGI scaffolding — this is one of 2026's more quietly impressive efforts.
The thing nobody mentions about confined-space war films is how much they rely on performances, not setpieces. Landship gets that balance right.
Runtime: 89 minutes
Director: Callum Burn
Lead: Vin Hawke
Release: 26 June 2026 (UK theatrical)
Where to stream: Check Movie OTT for current availability in your region
Give it the 89 minutes it asks for. You'll know by minute 15 whether you're staying.