Cargo, a short film written and directed by a New Zealander and shot in Prague, will have its world premiere with Coffee & Allah at the 64th edition of the Venice Film Festival. Cargo, a short film written and directed by a New Zealander and shot in Prague, will have its world premiere with Coffee & Allah at the 64th edition of the Venice Film Festival.Cargo portrays a young boy's descent into the world of child trafficking.

Director Leo Woodhead remembers the moment the idea for Cargo popped into his head.

"A friend of mine was writing a script about restorative justice, and we got to talking about Amnesty International and current topics in Europe. It was around the time of the Football World Cup in Germany, and there were a lot of reports about 'legal' brothels being set up to accommodate the whims of travelling fans. I got in touch with Amnesty and also La Strada, an organisation that helps women and children without rights in countries like the Czech Republic, and they gave me some stories and facts to look over."

Woodhead wrote and directed Cargo as his master thesis project.

"It came as quite a shock to be invited into competition at Venice, especially as this was the first festival I submitted the film to! It was such an unbelievably stressful experience making the film in a foreign country, but I had great support from the Czech cinematographer who shot the film, Martin Preiss."

Woodhead adds, "Weirdly, one of the main advantages of being a New Zealand filmmaker overseas was the association with The Lord of the Rings. I could barely speak the language but the moment I told people where I was from, their eyes would light up. One man who was letting us use his land to film on told me New Zealand was his dream place to live, and asked me why I chose to come to the Czech Republic to make a film. In my atrociously bad Czech, I told him it couldn't be done anywhere else and be realistic."

Leo Woodhead will travel to Venice with support from the NZFC.

Produced by Vanessa Alexander, Cargo was funded independently by writer/director Leo Woodhead with post-production funding from the New Zealand Film Commission.

29/8/07