Diego Star

Canadian director Frédérick Pelletier's first feature film Diego Star opens suddenly, with a lot of noise. This is only natural as the first scene takes place in the clunky engine room of the eponymous cargo ship. The first thing we lay eyes on is protagonist Traoré (played by Burkina Faso-born Issaka Sawadogo, seen last year in Nicholas Provost's The Invader), a mechanic from the Ivory Coast. Traoré is arguing with the ship's chief engineer about the cause of the engine failure which has trapped the ship and its multinational crew somewhere in the Quebecois part of the Saint Lawrence River (on the map, it's that big river that connects the Atlantic with the Great Lakes and also forms a part of the border between Ontario and New York).

The angry exchange between Traoré and the chief engineer, sounding all the more angry as they have to shout to make themselves heard over the noise which now includes the annoying sound of the engine alarm, tells us that the Ivorian has been warning his superior about the worn-out pistons (or valves? anyway, a crucial engine thingy) for quite some time, but there just had been no financial means to replace them. The same goes for the crew's wages, now two months outstanding, it transpires from Traoré's subsequent discussion with the young co-worker Timo (probably from the Middle East or North Africa). The recently-hired Timo is afraid he will be fired, as the chief engineer blames the engine failure on human error, and suggests to Traoré that they report the real problem to the Canadian authorities, who have to investigate the incident. Of course, the captain and chief engineer instruct the crew to tell the Canadians "the truth" — that they know nothing. And if they play along, they can expect to be paid soon.

The ship has to stay in the shipyard for inspection and repair, so the company accommodates the crew with the locals, and Traoré ends up in the apartment of Fanny (Chloé Bourgeois, known from Yves Christian Fournier's 2008 title Everything Is Fine). Fanny is a waitress in the shipyard cafeteria, in her early twenties, and the single mother of a baby boy. There is no mention of the father. Her 40-something mother stands in for a babysitter when necessary, but never stops nagging her daughter about she does or does not do ("I barely finished changing your diapers, and now I'm changing your son's."). Although she loves and cares for her son, Fanny finds motherhood a burden. She used to be a party girl, judging by her short hair dyed pitch-black, piercings and tattoos. Now she is angry at the world, and perhaps even more at herself. She rents out a room to Traoré because she needs the money, but her attitude clearly shows that she is not happy with the situation.

Traoré is about twice her age, and quite a mellow man, especially for a sailor. He has been on the Ringo... Diego Star for 18 years, and although his career has no doubt hardened him, he is a reasonable, well-behaved, soft-spoken person with a strong melancholy streak. Fanny's son in particular seems to like him, and Traoré is able to calm the child down and put him to sleep in the way that Fanny (or her mother) can't. Fanny is pleasantly surprised with this and, about half way through the film, their living arrangement seems as harmonious as it can get.

But then that worn-out (and true) saying, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions', rears its ugly hea as Traoré decides to tell the Canadian Coast Guard the real truth about the engine. Although it was initially Timo's idea to come clean, he is the only member of the crew who blames the defect on a lack of maintenance. Everybody else keeps their mouths shut and gets their wages, and Traoré gets suspended. Even the Coast Guard officer who promised to "get to the bottom of things" is washing his hands of the whole thing. It is easier (and probably more profitable) that way. This injustice makes Traoré so angry that he judges Fanny too harshly without any need to, so at this point we see him as an asshole.

And it is exactly in this injustice and the attitude of the captain and the owners of the Diego Star, and government officials, where I find the connection between the film's side of the world and my own. The ship's captain and the chief engineer are simply scum, which is made clear both by casting and the characters' behaviour. Between themselves they speak Russian, which hardly inspires trust, at least according to conventions of the Western cinema. In addition, the company that owns the ship is based in Larnaca, which immediately brings to mind shady bank accounts and money laundering. And when you expect the West (in this case represented by Canada) to go by the book and provide some kind of legal, if not moral justice, you realize that scum is scum wherever you go.

Yes, in our 'underdeveloped' countries of eastern Europe, that I like to term the 'Second-and-a-half World', educated and well-meaning people think of the West as of civilization, as opposed to our Wild East. But the way of thinking which sees liberal capitalism as unquestionably good does not recognize these categories. Ruble or Serbian dinar are no less valuable than dollar or euro. Of course, profit itself is only one side of the coin: capitalism is more often than not directly associated with democracy, these two words (they are really little more than words by now, their real meaning has either devolved with over-use or mutated with abuse) have been clumped together like French fries and ketchup for so long that no one even tries to separate them anymore. And who the hell decided it's ketchup that goes best with fries anyway? McDonald's?

Now that I mentioned food, there is another interesting connection between different sides of the world that I found in the film, so I will rather go there than rant about the West and the East, capitalism and democracy. See, at one point, Traoré is cooking for himself and Fanny, to celebrate his oldest son's 17th birthday. He is making kadjenou, which I discovered to be an Ivorian chicken dish usually reserved for special occasions. To cook kadjenou, it is best to use a 'Dutch oven' (get it? Dutch? Rotterdam? Filmkrant?), which is basically the same thing we call sač or peka in the Balkans. And, besides chicken, the recipe for this Ivorian dish includes tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, black pepper, jalapeno peppers, and olive oil. Except for the jalapenos (which would be replaced with hot paprika), this sounds very much like Balkan-Mediterranean food. I can practically imagine the taste, smell and texture of the dish.

I guess my point here is quite simple: wherever you go, scum is scum and good people suffer. But that doesn't mean you have to eat at McDonald's. First, it's not real food, and second, it doesn't taste like real food. So do this for yourself and you have done a little something for the common benefit as well. Make a kadjenou in the sač. McDonald's won't go bankrupt, most people will keep drenching their fries in ketchup, but you will feel better and be aware that it is because you put in some effort, you made and ate some proper food. The same goes for every other thing in life that has any worth. Some effort is required to watch a film like Ringo... damn! Diego Star, but it certainly pays off. Besides other benefits, it makes you think about something other than yourself, and that is what separates you from the scum. This automatically lowers the percentage of scum in the world's population, and that is a very good thing.

Vladan Petkovic