Yolanda Ramke & Ben Howling
Cargo

THE REVIEW

I think that although the process had been underway for several years, it can easily be said that those who belong to my generation (I was born in 1984) have experienced firsthand the end of the history of cinema, or at least of how it has been conceived since its origins. It was a gradual thing, to the point where a film is released on Netflix and the very same evening you find it available for free streaming. Add to this the fact that in this particular case, the film is a remake of a short film that was highly praised on YouTube, and you can say the picture is complete.

Anyway, I don’t know if it’s better or worse than before; I believe that, like many things, instead of making rankings, they should be considered in their specific time and context. I would do the same with this apocalyptic sci-fi film directed by Yolanda Ramke (who also wrote the screenplay) and Ben Howling, which was released just two or three days ago exclusively on Netflix. Shot and set in Australia, once again “Cargo” picks up on the theme dear to all viewers, depicting the spread of a pandemic that turns people into zombies and has spread with incredible speed worldwide. Practically nothing original from this point of view, although certain settings and aspects deserve to be considered, and the overall judgment of the film is not as negative as one might think.

The protagonist of the story (set in the beautiful and wild landscapes of the Australian outback) is a man named Andy Rose (Martin Freeman) who, after being infected himself (the “mutation” occurs after a certain period) and losing his wife, tries to escape the regression to a zombie state but most importantly, to reach a safe place to take his daughter safely. The story unfolds with a beginning whose settings clearly pay homage to “Apocalypse Now”: in a completely wild scenario, we see the protagonists traveling through a river aboard a boat, the only way to stay isolated from the contagion that has now become something dominant globally. But in the second part of the film, in the search for salvation, the protagonist will be forced to venture into the spectacular Australian outback (already celebrated by other “indie” sci-fi films like “The Rover”) where we will discover that the possible rebirth of the human race might lie in an ideal return to a closer bond with the earth, according to a vision expressed by the director that is partly ideological and perhaps also partly benevolent, naive, yet not devoid of a certain reverence towards a spiritual component and the shamanism of the indigenous peoples of the southern hemisphere, which along with some similarly restricted populations of the Amazon constitute the last proud resistances of a distant and perhaps obsolete world, but whose fascination evidently holds a very strong suggestion.

Objectively, not particularly original nor brilliant in dealing with the themes mentioned, “Cargo” strongly relies on the beauty of the settings (check) and plays it safe with the beloved old zombies that always appeal to everyone, but it is and never will be an unforgettable film. Its peculiarity lies in its contact with Aboriginal culture, this return marked by the bond between the protagonist and young Thoomi (the brilliant Simone Landers), yet what we can derive from it are more conjectures and our speculations rather than truly thematic proposals.