Cargo

After the father of a family of fishermen falls overboard during a heavy storm his sons are forced to work together to take over the business. The oldest son puts himself in charge and tries to keep his brothers out of it, without his knowing the company went bankrupt and can't sell the boat without the signature of the youngest brother which he despises for being an ex drug dealer. His brother wants to make a deal: he will sign if they go out for one last fishing trip. They agree and their relationship is renewed. The brothers decide they will try to find the money they need to keep their boat, De Broodwinnaar.

This only serves as a background to a dysfunctional family of three brothers, one father and a son that carry the sea within them. They rarely express their emotions, the atmosphere is always glooming, as if they were still out on a storm in the middle of the sea. There is no visible sign of trust, each dealing with the death of their father in their own way. To further stress the loneliness of seamen there are no women in this film. There is only a son, drugs and a lover that has his eyes fixed beyond the sea.

If I could I would complain about the monotony of this film but it is exactly the atmosphere created out of this that makes the movie effective. Being a fisherman is a tough job for tough men that live their life the same way almost every day. They wake up around the evening, prepare the boat, sail out at night and return with their harvest in the morning. They sleep, repeat. This is hardly the life women can imagine spending the rest of their lives and so these men rarely find affection except with their beers and occasional sons that come out of we-don't-know-what. From the very beginning the film makes you carry a weight, this gloom I mentioned before, and when you come out of the cinéma that feeling goes along with you for a while. It is a remarkable feat of Gilles Coulier to depict this lifestyle so authentically without making it feel outdated or oversimplified. The soft hints of Christianity underscores how these men trust their fate to brutal forces of nature that also bind them. Everything feels intentional without being too obvious, as the ending leaves you filled with doubt. Yet in the way the camera movement transforms the final shot you can tell what lies beyond the credits if it were up to Coulier.

Cargo is a phenomenal debut that embraces realism similar to early Dardenne movies.

Cargo is unquestionably a Flemish movie as it suffers from the flaws we see in all other "Flanders-flicks". We see downcast characters trodding through a world of faded shades of grey and blue with the occasional touch of orange. After all, the streetlights do have that colour. The script is immature, not to say slightly daft (not to say slow and tedious), and there is not a single grain of hope. Precisely the kind of lighthearted movie to watch on a Sunday afternoon.

Luckily, Coulier's direction is smooth. The cast's performances are decent: dramatic to suit the overall tone but stoic enough to keep it honest. David Williamson's cinematography is the only thing that tries to elevate the drama out of the salty sludge. Lisa Van der Aa's score is dark but also obscured by its lack of originality. However, the technical execution is not a real problem. The real problem is the story.

Instead of focussing on the main line of tension, Cargo decides to lose precious time on two oversimplified side plots. As a result, it sees itself forced to end the movie at a point where most other movies begin.

All the subjects it touches on are underdeveloped. All characters lack personality.

It's sad. It looked promising, but it's as average as any Flemish movie. Watch it if you'd like to see some pretty shots of Ostend and the Flemish coastline. Or else if you really don't have anything else to do on your Sunday afternoon.