“The Arctic Convoy” is a taut, old-fashioned World War II thriller detailing the grim realities of civilian merchant seamen sent in harm’s way to deliver supplies to the Soviet Union to ensure Nazi Germany would be fighting a two-front war it could not win.

It’s a fictional account based on the ill-fated Convoy PQ-17 saga with ships, many of them Norwegian, under escort in the deadly summer of ’42 when their escort was removed and they were ordered to “scatter” and try and make their own way, each alone, to the northern Russian ports of Archangel and Murmansk.

There have been decades of versions of this sort of story for filmgoers to appreciate, most of them concentrated during and in the decade or so after the war ended. The recent “Greyhound” showed the murderous cat-and-mouse destroyer vs. U-Boats view of the Battle of the Atlantic. “Arctic” is the second Norwegian film to focus on conquered and occupied Norway’s greatest contribution to the war effort, following Netflix’s excellent three-part series “War Sailor.”

Like the sailors who endured this deadly service, the viewer knows the drill in such cinematic recreations.

“Convoy” has a grizzled skipper, Skar (Anders Baasmo) and a seasoned but jumpy new first mate, Mørk, played by Tobias Santelmann of “In Order of Disappearance.”

It doesn’t matter that the crew grouses about the Russians being Nazi allies until Hitler sent his legions in search of more “living space.” Skar is a dogged and dogmatic skipper determined to do Norway’s “part” in this fight and supply their allies. Mørk just survived a ship he captained that was sunk out from under him on this very duty — Iceland to Murmansk. He might be a gunshy.

There are frightened green “kids” aboard, a female radio operator (Heidi Ruud Ellingsen), a nervous wreck of an engineer and a tough Swede, Johan (Adam Reier Lundgren), who mans the 20mm anti-aircraft gun during air raids. He’s got his reasons.

For convoys passing north of Norway and the arctic circle, every menace facing a merchant mariner during the war came into play. Summer or not, it was cold and/or foggy, with icebergs a menace the further north you went. They were in range of German Ju-88 bombers for much of the voyage. U-boats were a near constant menace. The Germans dropped mines.

And tucked into Norwegian anchorages were the last major German warships, including the feared Tirpitz. The mere hint that the Bismarck’s sister-ship might put to sea gave the British escorting convoys the jitters.

That’s what happened with PQ-17.

“The Arctic Convoy” puts its unnamed Norske freighter through the wringer with all of those menaces, a power struggle developing between the captain and first mate, a crew ready to mutiny over a “suicide mission” and an engineer who has to drink to keep his nerves and stay at his post below when he’s sure he’ll be trapped when — not if — they sink.

The skipper? He’s resigned to his fate every time he boards.

“I consider this a coffin,” he shrugs (in Norwegian, with English subtitles). As for the crew, “I don’t know any of their names.” Makes it easier to send me to do deadly work, to keep going when a crewman falls overboard (there’s no turning back).

Cinematographer Oskar Dahlsbakken opted for hand-held shots in many below deck scenes, giving the viewer a wobbly sense of “sea legs” as the crew and officers debate their fate.

Director Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken and his players keep the tension high, allowing a familiar story in a timeworn genre some measure of suspense.

A whole lot of what’s here is pretty conventional, even the melodramatic twists and intrigues in the plot. But Norwegian WWII films treat “heroics” with more sobriety than Hollywood ever did, because real heroics are a rare thing. Most life-and-death combat situations are filled with people just doing their duty and their jobs, hoping for the best.

“The Arctic Convoy” is not all that novel or new. But it’s beautifully put together, well-acted and tautly-acted. Fans of combat films will find this cinematic comfort food pretty satifying, no matter how unappetizing that herring looks on the galley’s plates at meal time.

Rating: unrated, violence

Cast: Tobias Santelmann, Anders Baasmo, Heidi Ruud Ellingsen and Adam Reier Lundgren 

Credits: Directed by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken, scripted by Christian Siebenherz, Harald Rosenløw-Eeg and Lars Gudmestad. A Magnet/Magnolia release.

Running time: 1:49