While lacking technical finesse and being too sluggishly paced for its own good, Cargo delivers plenty of singular atmosphere in its all too timely tale of a fisherman turned human smuggler.

There's no pleasure in saying this was a disappointment. Something powerful was expected right out the gate, but Kareem Mortimer's film leans away from making such statements as if it's too hard to tackle the nuances it sets up.

The slow pace and darkly disturbing narrative are sometimes a bit taxing, but the complex, messy characters remain deeply compelling.

A fascinating study not just of grief, but of the difficulty of working in such perilous circumstances.