Cargo, Swiss-style sci-fi
Ivan Engler and Ralph Etter’s eagerly-awaited Cargo is being released in German-speaking Switzerland on September 24. Entirely studio-shot, this debut science-fiction feature is something of a novelty on the Swiss film scene.
The film was a real challenge for producer Marcel Wolfisberg, who initially came up against sceptical funding bodies. Through persuasion and sheer determination, he finally managed to get together the €3m budget, but six years had passed since the project’s inception.
The film has all the ingredients of pure sci-fi: a dramatic situation (the world is left devastated by an environmental disaster and the survivors are condemned to living in overcrowded space stations), a fearless heroine (official leader Dr Laura Portmann) and a promised land (planet Rhea, situated six light-years away).
The adventure is set on board the spaceship Kassandra, en route for Station 42 with Laura at the controls. During her rounds of the sinister vessel, where the other members of the crew are frozen and hibernating, she senses the presence of intruders on board.
Scripted by Engler and Etter, this oppressive and claustrophobic film is full of shudders and suspense. It stars Anna Katharina Schwabroh, Martin Rapold, Regula Grauwiller and Pierre Semmler.
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