En rade (2011)

Cases of crews abandoned by their unscrupulous shipowners on rusting cargo ships in ports thousands of miles from home have plagued seafarers from emerging nations for over a decade. IN LIMBO is the inside story of two such dramatic cases in Brest, France. Though ten years apart, these stories are practically identical, involving the same rustbuckets, the same sailors from Eastern Europe, and literally the same local activists defending the lost men. Why is the port of Brest so prone to such human tragedies ? What is being done to protect seafarers ? The drama of abandoned crews is told through use of the diary of Captain Vladimir Kostyria as he and fifteen men descend into hell, through the personal insight brought by director Roy Lekus, and by James Smith and Jean-Paul Hellequin, two trade union activists whose spectacular actions in defense of abandoned crews goaded French maritime authorities into action before months turned into years.