Really fascinating film. Taking place almost entirely inside the back of a truck, four migrants hope that the journey from Belgium to the UK will provide them with a chance at a better life.
The film exists somewhere between documentary and fiction, as the directors film from within a reconstructed space, but the four guys on screen are all real migrants living Belgium, and all the words are their own, as they improvise based on their own experience. It brings home what an achievement it is, to have this really compelling, full length feature film, with entirely improvised performances.
The film is claustrophobic. I mean, you probably could have guessed that when I said it takes place almost entirely inside the back of a truck, but it’s one thing to register it and another thing to feel it for 75 minutes. The bit where one of the guys goes round the seams of the doors looking for some crack to get fresh air is particularly upsetting to watch. Because this is a time game. They have to be patient and wait for the truck to reach its destination, at the same time, they have to judge how long they can survive in this airless box. There is a constant tension of trying to figure out where they are, whether the driver has gone off for a pee or a kip or the weekend, and if silence means impending danger or respite from it.
The whole thing is so tense. They have to judge from the mumbles and bangs from outside, has the driver heard them? If he has, is it better to run now before the cops show up? And where would they even run, coz where the fuck even are they? They try to sus their location and route by checking the GPS on their phones but that can only tell them so much. When the van parks, are they at a service station, a car park, a warehouse lot? The whole thing brings home how precarious their lives are, how the big wins and losses are entirely outwith their control. And all they can do is make the choice to take that risk, to see if this time it will be their chance.