Premiering to rapturous reviews in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, Ognjen Glavonić’s narrative feature debut, The Load, is a taut suspense thriller recalling The Wages of Fear and Sorcerer. During NATO’s bombing of Serbia in 1999, Vlada, a truck driver, is hired to undertake a treacherous path across his war-torn country and deliver mysterious cargo. On a journey where friend and foe prove indistinguishable, Vlada comes to realize the horrifying ramifications of his mission. Brilliantly photographed and overwhelmingly atmospheric, The Load signals the arrival of a major talent.
Critic's Pick! An atmospheric, gripping film.
- Glenn Kenny, New York Times
Harrowing. A willful anti-thriller. An impressive new filmmaker.
- Jessica Kiang, Variety
Four stars. This is one of the year’s best films. A mesmerizing narrative feature debut.
- Matt Fagerhom, RogerEbert.com
Has that rare quality of dramatizing not the obvious evils of a conflict, but the torturous grey zone of how survival can implicate participation.
- Daniel Kasman, MUBI Notebook
With The Load Glavonić does what [Sergei] Loznitsa did in his 2012 WWII film In the Fog: he makes an exceptional war film that never once shows the atrocities of war, never tries to represent the unrepresentable.
- Azadeh Jafari, Cinema Scope
(Available to download after screening date)