To The North

Tension throbs like a ship's engine beneath Mihai Mincan's fiction feature debut. Moral values are also all at sea in his tale of a stowaway aboard a container ship heading from Spain to Canada. The mood is more of that of a western than a chamber piece, after Romanian Dumitri (Niko Beker) and his Bulgarian friend Georgi (Dimitar Vasilev) sneak aboard the vessel, which they believe is bound for America, their hope of a new life almost heartbreakingly simple.

Georgi, whose American Dream is to become a cowboy, is first to break cover, approaching one of the Filipino crew with a sweet smile and the word "amigo". The troubled look he receives from bosun Joel (Soliman Cruz) immediately creates tension and, though he is initially given food and water, the hierarchy on the ship soon becomes apparent, with a Taiwanese captain and his officer crew much less welcoming to their unexpected guest. When Dumitri takes his turn to come into the light, he again crosses paths with Joel, whose religious beliefs make him inclined to try to help this hapless kid.

The fear is stacked, like the decks of the ship, as Joel takes Dumitri down to the engine room, locking him into the darkness with the promise that he'll return with food and water the next day. One layer of anxiety concerns Dumitri, stuck and dependent as he is on a single man, who could be his saviour or his slayer. That is matched by the second layer of fear that sits heavily on Joel, lest his secret stowaway be revealed to his Taiwanese bosses by one of his less than eager Filipino co-conspirators.

Intensity burns through almost every interaction, whether it's Joel instructing Dimitri to pray or Joel's boss (Alexandre Ngyuen) engaging in philosophical small talk with a barbed underbelly. The director often lets faces completely fill the frame so it feels as though there's no escape, a sensation added to by the measured delivery and even tone that carries with it an unspoken threat or, in Joel's case, simply feels as though something more may be hidden beneath.

Mincan, whose background is in documentary, makes us hyper-aware of the spaces on the ship, as the score from Marius Leftarache glowers broodily beneath and sound design from Nicholas Becker (The Sound Of Metal) draws on the groans, beeps and creaks of the ship to stoke the mood. The containers and decks are like a warren, with Dumitri the frightened rabbit at its heart but Joel's position is barely any more enviable - he may be able to move anywhere on board but he can't get off until port. Morality is a game of chess here, something Mincan lays out almost literally as Joe's boss patiently explains to him his perceived difference between what is "good" and what is "fair". We'll soon come to see that roles are not as fixed as they appear, a hero could be a villain in the right circumstances, a victim might turn predator - by the end we root for everyone and no one, caught as they all are between the devil and the deep blue sea.