The filmmaking style is austere, the dialog sparse, the story mostly told visually – it’s an exercise in poetic minimalism.

| Jul 24, 2023

It is [Leon] Lučev's almost unbelievable performance that makes the execution of Glavonić's vision not only possible, but remarkably clear.

| Sep 16, 2020

A moving, impressionistic portrait of a man trying to survive chaos during wartime.

| Nov 25, 2019

We not only feel the stifling turmoil of [Vlada's] conscience-stricken sense of survival but also the chilly outlook on an ashy-gray landscape from which one might think only of escape and eventually the roiling ill at a literal and figurative burden.

| Oct 18, 2019

It has no need for battles or skirmishes or chases or explosions. This is a film about the consequences of war on an intimate level...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 6, 2019

It's not concerned with action. It prioritizes mood instead. Indeed, it might be closer to Theo Angelopolous' slow cinema road movies.

| Sep 5, 2019

The Load is thoughtful enough as a character study, but its true subject is the war-ravaged landscape that unfurls through the truck's windshield and the various pit stops its driver makes along the way.

| Aug 29, 2019

[An] atmospheric, gripping film...

| Aug 29, 2019

Out of misery comes reflection, and this remarkable film is a testament to how the past need not always be absolute prologue, even if history so often repeats itself.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 29, 2019

As intelligently crafted as the film is, Glavonić's directorial strategies do end up limiting the film's observational power... What The Load succeeds at evoking so superbly, though, is an uncanny sense of physical movement.

| Original Score: B | Aug 28, 2019

This is one of the year's best films.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 28, 2019

It's like we're front-seat passengers, and though it induces much anxiety, The Load compels us to keep both eyes forward lest we miss whatever might happen next.

| Aug 28, 2019

Glavonic, who has a background in documentary, has crafted a moody and broody piece, built less on onscreen incident than the oppressive atmosphere and offscreen imaginings.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 28, 2019

What distinguishes the film are the steps its characters take to save their dignity.

| Aug 28, 2019

A film that uniquely paints a sympathetic picture of the Serbs, the most demonized European nationality of the recent past.

| Aug 27, 2019

Leaves us with bleak images that are still haunting even if the Yugoslavian conflict is now all but forgotten for most people not living in the Balkans.

| Original Score: B | Aug 27, 2019

The Load chooses to privilege the subjective experience of its protagonist, the truck driver Vlada. [Full Review in Spanish]

| May 20, 2019

Subtle, with great handling. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 6, 2019

Glavonic meticulously films the portrait of this conflict made from apparent emotional vulnerability. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 16, 2019

Ognjen Glavonic conveys the devastation and numbness that results from atrocity without resorting to exploitation.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 19, 2019