- 2019
- Grasshopper Film
- 1 h 38 m
SummaryDuring 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. [Grasshopper Film]
Directed By:Ognjen Glavonic
Written By:Ognjen Glavonic, Geoffroy Grison
The Load
Metascore
Generally Favorable
75
User score
Available after 4 ratings
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
75
89% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
11% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Oct 17, 2019
80
The overtly graphic isn’t Glavonic’s visual style, but rather a cold, more powerful image seepage — what a man’s physicality says about complicity, and what a shot of the muddied ground near a hosed-down truck says about what war does to the ground, a land and the soul.
Aug 28, 2019
80
It requires a degree of commitment on the part of the viewer to join the sparsely placed dots of Glavonić’s harshly intelligent and uncompromisingly spare story, especially when the picture they form is so harrowing. But the elements that frustrate can also devastate.
Aug 28, 2019
75
Chromatically, The Load makes Saving Private Ryan look like The Band Wagon. Yet Glavonic still manages to convey the devastation and numbness that results from atrocity without resorting to exploitation. Trauma is approached obliquely, more a subliminal fact of life than a single psychological rupture to be confronted and mended.
Aug 28, 2019
75
As intelligently crafted as the film is, Glavonić’s directorial strategies do end up limiting the film’s observational power.
Aug 28, 2019
70
If any colour represents the long-term impact of war, it’s the blend of beige and grey that fills The Load’s quietly powerful frames.
Aug 28, 2019
60
This well-intentioned meditation of the banality of evil packs a modest emotional punch, but it might have been more powerful if it had shown us a little less banality and a little more evil.
User score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
100% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Jan 7, 2022
9
A deeply moving film, Ognjen Glavonić's debut finds poignance in quiet pockets of space. Glavonić's directing is slow and hypnotic, almost Bela Tarr-esque in places. His background in documentaries is readily apparent; he seems content to allow the camera to wander of its own accord, to drift between spaces of incredible beauty - a bleak and beige countryside, a bus on fire, a claustrophobic roadside motel stop. Its people shift in and out of frame, with occasional background characters coming to the fore for a short time, each with their own individual story, most to be relayed to the viewer silently and only in passing. It's a film about what it means to hold onto one's individual dignity in the face of extreme adversity. Glavonić regards these characters with a sort of reverence, offering us a glimpse into their quiet, often silent struggles, one that you can't help but watch. After a while, it becomes impossible to look away.
Report
Production Company:
- Cinémadefacto
- Dart Film & Video
- Kinorama
- Non-Aligned Films
- Three Gardens Film
Release Date:Aug 30, 2019
Duration:1 h 38 m
Genres:
Awards
FilmFestival Cottbus (FFC)
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Marrakech International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Sarajevo Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
