In the Absence (2018)

There is something really quite bizarre, almost sedate, about watching the first fifteen minutes or so of this documentary. We witness a ferry - the "Sewol" - that is clearly listing and is surrounded by ships of all sizes, but that is still more or less fully occupied by most of it's 476 passengers and crew who are awaiting an evacuation order. The authorities seem to be relying on the captain - who has been removed safely, or awaiting video evidence of just how perilous the plight of these folks might be before actually taking the precautions of getting them off. Better safe than sorry, surely? It did sink, eventually, with 304 fatalities and the subsequent enquiry and court proceedings illustrate quite effectively a shocking degree of governmental paralysis and led to the removal of the President of South Korea (though as much for other corrupt practices as for her inept leadership during this crisis). What I couldn't quite get my head around is that we actually watch this ship being swallowed up by the sea in the most surreal of fashions. It's not like there were raging seas, squals and battering rain. The conditions were calm, there were ample opportunities to get people rescued yet nobody was prepared to act. Why is just the most bamboozling question - and one that the family's of the survivors were just as perplexed with as traumatised divers went down into the gunnels of the craft to find who they could in the immediate aftermath and then some three years later after the boat was raised from the sea bed and efforts could be made to find and/or repatriate any remaining bodies from it's rusted infrastructure. There isn't a detailed narration here, the narrative comes more from textualising the radio and phone communication between the Coast guard, the Rescue services and the civilian authorities, so at times we are reading a little more than I'd have liked - but this is still a strikingly simple actuality of a disaster that's looks something akin to an Hollywood disaster movie.