'Sons of the Sea': A Cape smuggling thriller with international roots

Mexican-American director John Gutierrez trains his lens on the shadowy world of abalone smuggling in Cape Town for this taut and thoughtful thriller that delivers on its genre pleasures while exploring some provocative ideas about the long-reaching tentacles of colonialism, the psychological and material effects of displacement and the age-old conflict between humans and their environment.

Inspired by John Steinbeck's novella The Pearl and the Mexican legend of Baja pearl diver El Muchado, it's the familiar tale of what happens when an unexpected financial windfall threatens to corrupt those in whose lap it lands.

In this case the protagonists are two brothers - studious Gabriel (Roberto Kyle) and jaded, street-smart hustler Mikhail (Marlon Swarts) - whose lives and choices are thrown into turmoil when they discover a bagful of precious abalone in the room of a dead man in a Kalk Bay hotel.

Gabriel, focused squarely on his studies as a means of escaping the harsh realities of their life in the fishing community on the wrong side of the tracks, is initially reluctant. He's pressured into making what will turn out to be a very bad decision by his brother's constant ragging and in spite of the support he gets for his chosen path from his doting girlfriend Tanya (Nicole Fortuin).

As the brothers plan to sell the treasure, their dreams of quick money and instant social elevation are upended by the intentions of a corrupt government official, Peterson (Brendon Daniels), who wants the abalone for his own nefarious purposes.

The clash between the brothers and Peterson leads to a desperate, grimly filmed chase across the coast towards an inevitable confrontation that will have terrible consequences for all the players.

Styled as a dark piece of crime neo-noir, the film ultimately lifts itself above its genre expectations through a solid cast and Gutierrez's keen eye for moments in which the film and its characters are allowed to reflect on the larger forces at work in the creation of their circumstances, often achingly beyond their control.

The big questions of dispossession and the ruthlessness of the struggle for survival that the film poses are key to the understanding of the characters and help to make Sons of the Sea more than just a genre film.

Winner of the best South African feature at this year's Durban International Film Festival, it's ultimately a tightly controlled, briskly entertaining thriller that leaves much to contemplate in its wake. 

• 'Sons of the Sea' is on DStv Box Office.