The Sailor

Lucia Kašová / Slovakia / 2021 / Czech Premiere / 78 min.

synopsis

Hailing from Britain, he had spent much of his life in the deserted Caribbean islands, a no-man’s land where only animals roam. Paul Earling Johnson was born a sailor. The sea was his school, his home, and a refuge from the madness of the modern world. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean by himself before he started building ships. Although he’s the father of at least three children, family life has never fulfilled him. Today, he’s over eighty years old and has settled on the island of Carriacou, where he resides alone without any energy, but not without a thirst for adventure. This portrait of a seemingly uncouth man with big dreams unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality and who abandoned everyone he knew to find his own personal freedom flows in the calm rhythm of a ship swaying on the sea waves.

"I have met people who communicate and live with the sea. They are called 'sea gypsies'. There are no flags of their native countries on their vessels because their nationality, religion and home is the sea." (Lucia Kašová)

biography

Slovak documentary filmmaker Lucia Kašová is the woman behind the award-winning short film, Concrete Times (2018). She is also noted for shooting an open portrait of former Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, for the television series Ex-Prime Ministers (2018). Thanks to her glowing relationship with the sea, she met the protagonist for her feature-length debut, The Sailor.