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In a zombie-infected Australia, a father tries to find a home for his young daughter, but will he find sanctuary when he’s fighting such awful odds?

Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke’s remake of their 7-minute short film into a full-length feature gains bonus points for taking a genre that’s literally been done to death and found something new to say. Martin Freeman stars as Andy, playing a British Everyman who has so far escaped the zombie apocalypse by staying on a houseboat with his wife and baby daughter. But when tragedy strikes he finds that he’s fighting the clock to meet his wife’s dying wish.

As zombie movies go, this is low on gore and viscera, though the living dead’s ever-present threat is constant. It’s actually a movie about a quest (something that Freeman has form in) which just so happens to be taking place in a post-pandemic world. As with shows like The Walking Dead, you wonder whether survival is actually something worth fighting for, with mankind reduced to violence and no real expectation of things getting better.

It’s a nice twist that those who are best suited to surviving in this new world are those who were there first of all – the Aborigines. They treat Freeman with suspicion, keeping him and his child at arm’s length, though circumstances dictate a change in sympathy. The Southern Australia landscapes are beautifully photographed, the barren vistas adding to the sense of isolation and absence of human population.

Verdict: A beautiful film about an awful situation, what Cargo lacks in zombie action it excels at in its look at humanity under crisis. 7/10

Nick Joy