Polaris

Work, eat, sleep - and then back to work again. The ocean is a lonely place that swallows up your words. Almost entirely without dialogue, gives the viewer a glimpse into the lives of migrant fishermen in a small Scottish town, and shows what work can mean in our lives. For years, shipping companies in northern Scotland had great difficulty finding local people to work on their trawlers. And then the Filipinos came to Scotland to sign up, leaving their families behind in hopes of earning a living. A short telephone call is the only contact one man has with his seven-month pregnant wife in the Philippines. The scenes of the fishermen are shot like static tableaus. The Scots and Filipinos do their best to close the gulf between the two cultures, but usually they remain silent. We see them sitting at the table, cleaning the nets, singing karaoke and standing silently beside the dripping conveyor belt as it brings in an endless stream of fish.