Relatively
speaking, Australia should expect high survival rates if a zombie apocalypse
ever swept across the globe. They have a low population density and a good deal
of open space. In fact, even the unassuming Andy has survived with his wife and
infant daughter for several months. Unfortunately, dwindling supplies will lead
to tragedy in Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke’s Cargo (trailer
here),
a feature expansion of their widely viewed short film, which screens during the
2018 Tribeca Film Festival.
Commandeering
a houseboat was a temporarily winning strategy, but it is not sustainable over the
long run. Eventually, the need for food forces Andy (perhaps a nod to Andy
Rodoreda, the lead actor in the 2013 short) and Kay to take risks and that
leads to sloppiness. The upshot is first Kay and then Andy is infected with the
zombie virus. She will go fairly quickly, but he will presumably have most of
his full forty-eight-hour incubation period to figure out how to secure his
baby daughter Rose’s future.
There
are a few survivors out there, but some of them reflect the worst in human
nature. Others demonstrate kindness, like a cancer-stricken school teacher, but
obviously she cannot be a long-term guardian. Frankly, Australia’s aboriginal
population seems to be the best prepared to deal with the zombies, so Andy
tries to forge an alliance with Thoomi a resilient teen girl, who is
essentially an orphan since her father turned.
Cargo is a zombie film
with real emotional heft, sort of in the tradition of the Schwarzenegger film Maggie. Frankly, Howling & Ramke
serve up relatively few zombie attacks, but they maintain an overwhelming sense
of tension every second of the way, so you really can’t call it a revisionist
zombie movie, or Heaven forbid, “post-horror.”
Based
on what we heard from Steve’s interview with Martin Freeman forthcoming on
Unseen Films, it is easy to understand why the film’s themes of fatherhood and
sacrifice appealed to Martin Freeman. He is terrific taking over from Rodoreda
as the father. He might just be the actor with the most everyman (or
everyhobbit) credibility since Tom Hanks at his peak, which serves him well in
this context. Susie Porter is also pretty darned devastating as Kay, while Kris
McQuade also adds a graceful note of compassion as the school teacher, Etta.
The
media and popular culture generally portrays widespread calamities as a catalyst
for looting and exploitation, but the historical record suggests the opposite
is more accurate. Disasters usually bring out the best in people, but we never
see that in zombie movies and TV shows. At least Ramke’s screenplay offers a
more balanced assessment. There are both good and bad people in Cargo, just as there are in real life.
Recommended as a zombie film with heart and genuine feeling, the Netflix-bound Cargo screens again tonight (4/21) and
Wednesday (4/25), during this year’s Tribeca.
