Keep Frozen

In the night and cold of the Icelandic winter, workers are organised around a trawler returning from deep-sea fishing whose holds are full of frozen fish. There are 20,000 crates of 25kg to unload in 48 hours. The temperature in the fridge is -35°C and, on the quays, the snow crunches under big safety boots. The guys doing this work are tough. The slightest error, the slightest wrong move, could be an accident that costs them their lives.

In Keep Frozen, they become virtuosos. The forklift trucks intersect as if in a dance, the crates seem incredibly light and float among the snowflakes. Here, the crude lamp lighting carves out the stage of a real ballet in which the setting, between the hangars of the docks and the fishing trawler, covered with a soft layer of snow, contrasts sharply with the harshness of the work. It is the sound that reminds us of their true status. In voiceover, their stories, disembodied as never linked to a particular man, evoke their lives beyond this scene. At the same time, it is this treatment that transforms this group of men into a real team, which is united, and which gives the strength of achievement.

Madeline Robert

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