People smuggling

Cargo—An unusual take on human trafficking

Bahamian director Kareem Mortimer’s Cargo approaches the topic of refugees from an unusual viewpoint—that of the boat-owner who transports desperate Haitians on one leg of their long voyage to the promised land of the United States.

Mortimer’s own country, the Bahamas, is the backdrop for this dense, complex story of human smuggling, which zooms in on some of the individuals caught up in various ways in this wider regional tragedy. Action scenes and character studies lead up to lingering, weirdly beautiful but heart-wrenching images. Adroitly woven into the main theme of human smuggling are poignant observations on racism, migrants—and the way the people of the region regard each other.