Director Chiara Messineo‘s disaster and survival documentary “Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea” pulls you in almost immediately because it hits the ground (or in this case, the sea) running. Even if you already know the story of the doomed Costa Concordia, it’s still incredibly tense because it’s told through the eyes of the people who survived it.
The film recounts the 2012 disaster off the coast of Tuscany when the luxury cruise ship struck a rock formation and capsized, killing 32 passengers and crew members. Messineo uses selected survivor interviews, black box recordings from the vessel, and remarkable cell phone footage shot by passengers during the disaster. Much of this imagery has never before been seen, and that footage is easily the documentary’s greatest strength. Watching events unfold through the passengers’ own cameras makes everything feel frighteningly real, especially if you are an avid cruiser.
The survivor stories are what really stick with you, but I do wish Messineo had widened her focus to include a few more subjects. The stories are all compelling, but hearing from an American couple trying to save their baby and a British dancer ordered to keep performing while the ship was sinking are especially heartbreaking. Even years later, you can see how deeply the experience still affects them. These people are still intensely traumatized from a literal life or death situation, and it’s very sad to watch. As someone who enjoys cruising, I also appreciated that the documentary answers questions many people (including myself) have had for years, like why passengers couldn’t simply swim to shore or immediately board the lifeboats.
For every question that’s resolved, there are even more that go unanswered.
Captain Francesco Schettino, who was held criminally responsible, was in charge of failures that were grossly negligent and incompetent. I wish the documentary had spent more time examining his personal and the cruise company’s responsibility, the technical failures behind the disaster, and the safety changes to the industry that followed. There’s not much here about Schettino’s trial or the more sordid details of why he did what he did, but this is a story about the people who miraculously lived through it. And while Costa is well known as a cruise line that caters to Europeans and international clientele, the documentary focuses almost entirely on a small group of mostly American passengers, missing the chance to tell a broader story.
Even with those flaws, “Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea” is a gripping and emotional documentary. It’s fast-paced, packed with incredible archival footage, and shows how quickly a luxury vacation can turn into a fight for survival when leadership and systems fail. If you’re a fan of true crime or disaster documentaries, this one is well done.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 