The Load

In 1999 truck driver Vlada arrives at a dilapidated warehouse in war-torn Kosovo to collect a mysterious load. He has to keep to a strict schedule, not ask any questions and keep the back of the truck locked. Vlada sets off on an odyssey through a desolate landscape of derelict houses and bridges bombed up by NATO. When he finally gets home, he is confronted by the consequences of his actions. His load becomes his burden.

Ognjen Glavonić’s film is based on the real events he dealt with previously in the documentary Depth Two (2016). In his fiction debut The Load, he focuses principally on the moral collapse of an ordinary man just trying to get by, and investigates what this generation inherits from the last. Glavonić shifts down the gears for this subtle story, captured in claustrophobic images pregnant with ever-present threat, making the impact of the denouement all the more powerful.