True North

"Sean, there seems to be a lot of Chinese people on this boat." On their way back to Scotland, the crew of a bankrupt trawler stop off for a night in Ostend, Belgium. While the up-for-anything Riley (Mullan) and the slow-minded cook (Robertson) enjoy a night out, Sean (Compston) - the son of the ship's Skipper (Lewis) - accepts a lot of money to smuggle illegal Chinese immigrants to Scotland. Keeping them out of sight of his father, Sean and a roped-in Riley hide their 'cargo' in the engine room with just enough food to last the short journey north. However, when their catch is low, the Skipper decides to take the ship off course in the hope of securing an attractive payload. Writerdirector Steve Hudson makes a startling debut with this thought-provoking downer. For a film that looks like it was made in the lower regions of budgetdom, it's testament to Hudson's talent that he manages to deliver a believable storm sequence on par with Wolfgang Peterson's The Perfect Storm - but that's not the most impressive element of True North. The plot is the tightest this reviewer has seen in a very long time: there isn't a second of on-screen action that isn't absolutely essential to the overall story, which is why Hudson got to say so much in such a short time. The cast, acting from well-drawn characters, never deliver a bum note and Mullan proves once again what an underrated talent he really is.