Film cuts deep for Beaconsfield miners

BEACONSFIELD mine survivor Todd Russell has revealed the filming of a movie about the rescue has exposed him to parts of the ordeal he wasn't familiar with - and the experience has been confronting for both him and his wife.

Beaconsfield movie

BEACONSFIELD mine survivor Todd Russell has revealed the filming of a movie about the rescue has exposed him to parts of the ordeal he wasn't familiar with - and the experience has been confronting for both him and his wife.

The shooting of the Channel Nine film Beaconsfield moved to the Tasmanian town last week and included the re-creation of the scene when Russell and Brant Webb emerged from the lift cage on May 9, 2006, after two weeks underground.

"Caroline and I have never discussed the underground part of the 14 days and we've never discussed the family side of what happened. We just made a decision to move on in life," Mr Russell said.

"But I was there in Melbourne when they shot the family side of it and it was quite raw and emotional. I shed a few tears and had to leave the set for a little while just to compose myself."

Russell and Webb, and wives Caroline and Rachael, have become friends of the men playing them, Lachy Hulme and Shane Jacobson.

Caroline Russell says she thinks the shooting at the mine - in which Hulme and Jacobson step from the lift cage - will be hard to watch.

"I'm coping pretty well but I don't how I'll be when we go up to the mine," she said. Webb said the film should be seen as a tribute to the rescuers.

"We're survivors - they're heroes," he said.