The Forgotten Space

The starting point of this remarkable documentary essay seems quite innocuous: a story of colourful boxes, according to the narrator. This refers to the freight containers that have become the basic unit of global trade since their introduction in the 1960s. Almost 90 per cent of this trade takes place on the world's oceans, the Forgotten Space that the film's title conjures up. The fact that the cargo remains invisible - at most two per cent of the containers are inspected - contributes to oblivion: The stacks of containers are reminiscent of gangsters' money bags, says the narrative voice at the beginning. The renowned artist Allan Sekula and the great film theorist Noël Burch take a world tour through various port cities on the trail of the containers and discover astonishing things: The Forgotten Space fuses aesthetic and analytical observations about the secret power lines of capitalism. A sea monster film of a different kind. (Christoph Huber)

Photo: Österreichisches Filmmuseum