Dead Slow Ahead, Mauro Herce, Spain/France, 2015, 74'
A cargo ship crosses the ocean at night. From this image anything could happen: the story of the Filipino seamen who inhabit the vessel, the phantasmagoria of the boat’s gears, the ports and lighthouses in the distance, voices on phone calls that break up, the feeling of being inside a mythological animal that is breathing and moving after its extinction, the colours, lights and rhythms of the night, the almost science fiction story of a ship drifting in the middle of nowhere... All of this and a lot more happens in the first feature leangth film by Mauro Herce, an abyssal/abysmal/animal film.
Known until now for his work as director of photography on new Galician cinema (Arraianos by Eloy Enciso, El quinto evangelio de Gaspar Hauser (The Fifth Gospel of Kaspar Hauser) by Alberto Gracia, Mimosas by Oliver Laxe), Herce becomes the captain - with decorations - thanks to this film, one of the revelations of 2015, winner of the Special Jury Prize, Cineasti del Presente, at the Locarno International Film Festival.
Screening of Mauro Herce's 'Dead slow ahead', one of the revelations of 2015.