Buried on Sunday (1992)

When a Canadian Atlantic coast fishing village is threatened with the loss of all of its fishing rights, local reverend (and mayor) Augustus Knickel finds a way to fight back. Relying on an obscure clause in an ancient treaty, he declares the village as an independent republic! He also finds a way to back up those words: by buying an abandoned Russian nuclear submarine from the most senior officer still aboard (namely, the cook.)