Short film

Cargo

2001 · 30 min

A hushed, drifting voyage through confinement and waiting, blurring observation and invention into a quiet meditation on limbo.

Overview: CARGO is the story of a journey, I made on a container ship with a group of Rumanian and Filipino sailors, who were delivering cargo to the Middle East. I stayed on the ship six weeks. Most of the sailors weren’t allowed to leave the boat and they spent their days waiting, singing karaoke and telling me stories in a small TV room. In Syria, the ports were military zones. I hid at a porthole and secretly filmed the life below: a man stealing wood, a soldier fishing off the edge of an abandoned submarine. Later, I made a narrative, that falls between reality and fiction. It was a way of showing the limbo these men were living in.
How it feels: Melancholic, eerie and warm. Slow-burning and demanding.
About: Isolation, work, immigration, loneliness
Content: Mild violence and language. No gore or sexual content.
Note: Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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