Jonathan Zaurin’s deeply impressive crime drama is a striking exploration of guilt and redemption. Here’s our Derelict review.
We’ve been following Jonathan Zaurin’s film Derelict for a while now. The first trailer emerged earlier this year and we were immediately hooked by the black and white cinematography and were very excited to learn the film would be premiering at FrightFest 2024.
Naturally, I had to check the film out, but I’ve been waiting to write the review, just letting it simmer in my mind. I can’t say Derelict was what I expected it to be from the trailer or even the film’s opening act, but I was very, very impressed.
The film opens with home videos, vibrant with colour, introducing us to a pair of young girls and their dad. These scenes of happiness are contrasted by black-and-white scenes of a crime scene, with a bloodied body lying on the ground. Accompanied by a gentle score, the effect is chilling.
We’re then introduced to Abigail (Suzanne Fulton), one of the young girls in the home videos, now a grown woman who can’t move past the murder of her father. Abigail carries a lot of hate and anger around and is looking for a way to avenge her father’s death.
We also meet two brothers. Matt (Michael Coombes) is shy and quiet, while his brother Ewan (Pete Bird) is loud and brash and fresh out of prison. The stories of the three characters all interlap and are told out of order. Abigail’s story is told in black-and-white to highlight how empty her life has become, how all the colour has been drained out of it while Matt and Ewan’s story is told in colour, although there’s not much joy in their life either as both brothers are stuck in a destructive loop of toxic masculinity and crime.
Derelict could have been a straightforward story about a woman getting revenge. Matt and Ewan could have been your usual bad guys and Abigail could have been an angel of death, but that would have been too easy. Zaurin has much more ambitious intentions and they pay off wonderfully in the film’s last act.
Instead of offering us a plot-driven revenge story, Derelict morphs into a complex meditation on poverty, masculinity and being trapped by expectations. Guilt and redemption are also carefully explored here and the final minutes of Derelict are devastating, still haunting my mind. Zaurin’s film feels real and life-like as he frames violence as a requirement to survive in a cold world where nothing comes easily.
Ewan and Matt are both trapped in a cycle of violence and drugs. Matt is more sensitive of the two and we first meet him as he’s hanging out with a non-binary friend, who is later assaulted while Matt watches on, unable or unwilling to help. Derelict seems to share a lot of DNA with the works of Shane Meadows. Meadows and Zaurin both explore the working classes with a clarity that feels rare and special.
Despite offering us a glimpse into the complicated lives of Matt and Ewan, Zaurin never asks us to forgive them for their transgressions. Derelict asks for our empathy, which you might very well be unable to give it, but Zaurin does an exemplary job of showing us the other side of the coin, whether we like to see it or not.
At two hours, I struggled with the film’s middle section, which felt a little slow, especially as it focuses more on Matt than anyone else. Zaurin creates a meticulous portrait of a time and place, but the film’s emotional power doesn’t become clear until the final act. Derelict is a mightily impressive sophomore feature from Zaurin and laments him as a talent to watch.
Derelict screened as part of FrightFest 2024.
