Greg Mortimer (Greg Mortimer, en busca de una tierra solidaria)
Documentary film directed by Federico Lemos
In English and Spanish with English subtitles
Showing nationally as part of the Spanish Film Festival

The Greg Mortimer is a luxury cruise ship owned and operated by the Australian company, Aurora Expeditions. It specialises in once-in-a-lifetime, high-end Antarctic voyages.

This Uruguayan documentary, which retells the harrowing journey it made at the opening stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 is exactly the kind of publicity the owners would dread.

The Greg Mortimer set sail from Argentina for Antarctica laden with Australians, New Zealanders, Americans and some European nationals just hours before the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 pandemic. Very quickly Argentina closed its borders.

The passengers and crew suddenly realised that they were all alone, far at sea with insufficient medical facilities to handle Covid.

One by one passengers and crew became stricken. Interviews with survivors tell of their anguish as the whole ship was locked down to contain the infection. Trying to find a refuge, the ship travelled to the British-controlled Falklands Islands but was turned away.

Slowly, the ship’s doctor became aware that the captain was attempting to falsify medical information that he was sending ashore. The ship’s owners were desperate to avoid costs.

Brazil, Argentina and Chile would not accept the Greg Mortimer, hence the sub-title of the film’s Spanish name, en busca de una tierra solidaria – in search of a solidary land. Unlike English, Spanish has an adjective derived from the noun solidarity and that is the thread of this film.

By the time the ship dropped anchor off Montevideo in Uruguay, 70 per cent of those on board were infected. The then-Morrison Liberal Australian government dragged its feet in helping.

Uruguayan health authorities organised emergency measures onboard and doctors and nurses demonstrated personal courage in taking on the assignment.

Ultimately, all the passengers were safely evacuated, leaving only crew on board. At that point Aurora Expeditions gave the captain orders that were effectively suicidal.

The crew realised that they were being sent to their deaths, which led to a dramatic confrontation.

The film’s final section is taken up with a moving series of statements by passengers and crew members praising the Uruguayan people for saving them, which is wonderful but overdone.

Greater context would have given the film more depth.

There is a significant backstory to solidarity links between Australians and Uruguayans. In the 1970s, Uruguay was a victim of Operation Condor, which imposed brutal, right-wing military dictatorships throughout Latin America, all sponsored by the United States.

Many Uruguayans fled to Australia as political refugees at that time. It would have been interesting to have linked elements of that experience and the Uruguayan solidarity depicted here.

In 1999 the Uruguayan left, organised in the Frente Amplio (the Broad Front), had an electoral breakthrough. It still controls the National Assembly, but lost the presidency in 2019.

Greg Mortimer as a documentary could have examined the heritage of this socialist tradition rather than positing the aid given to the stricken ship as an outpouring of national character. During the bleak days of the dictatorship Uruguay was known as one of the worst places for human rights. What brought about this change of character if not a growth of the socialist movement?

The tale of the Greg Mortimer’s wanderings is a strong metaphor for life under contemporary capitalism: all at sea, driven by a captain following the irrational orders of unseen overloads while totally dependent on the solidarity of self-sacrificing workers.

Greg Mortimer is an interesting film and has the potential to be more so.