World adventurer
I never cease to be amazed by the talent and quality of young filmmakers. In fact, there is so much talent out there that it might be all to easy to take it for granted. Perhaps it’s because the constantly improving state of technology gives each generation ever better tools to bring their artistic gifts to the fore. Also, each new crop of auteurs grows up with ever more intimate access to artistic works from all over the world as well as everything that has survived from the past. Whatever explains it, the bar just keeps getting higher and higher for what we can expect from new talent.
Movie Poster
A great example of what I’m talking about has just come my way in the form of a 19-minute documentary that kind of took my breath away. That’s probably because I had recently been reading about the Hollywood actor Sterling Hayden, whom I had known mainly for his roles in movies by John Huston, Nicholas Ray, Francis Ford Coppola and, especially Stanley Kubrick (The Killing and Dr. Strangelove). What I didn’t know was that for him acting was nearly a mere hobby in order to fund his real passion, which was sailing. His adventures were many, far-ranging and the stuff of adventure books.
Aleixo Belov in the Galapagos Islands
It turns out that Hayden (who died in 1986) has a Brazilian counterpart and kindred spirit in the form of 81-year-old Alexei Belov. I had not heard of this man before, but presumably he is much better known, if not celebrated, in his own country. In any event his legacy is now even more secure thanks to a stirring movie by Tiago Abubakir, who hails from Salvador, Bahia, where Belov has lived for three-quarters of a century. The film—Belov: Uma Vida no Mar (Belov: A Life at Sea)—is of a quality that you might expect to see on PBS or BBC. Though it may not benefit from the considerable resources available to people working for those organizations, that really doesn’t matter. Much of the film, which is in Portuguese, consists of Belov simply talking about himself and his life in a matter-of-fact way that belies the wonder of all his experiences and adventures. He is fascinating enough that this is nearly all you need, but Abubakir draws us in with a wealth of photographs and clips of footage to illustrate the man’s stories. Shots of the striking Belov in his dauntless, shipboard youth are like outtakes from a Hollywood epic. We wish that, like Hayden, he had too been an actor so that his vibrant physical spirit could have been preserved on celluloid for all time.
The sailboat-school Fraternidade in polar waters
We learn that Belov was born in Ukraine and taken on a postwar odyssey by his parents (an agronomist and a doctor) across Europe and eventually to Brazil. A gift of a diving mask from a friend when he was 16 years old led to a fascination (obsession?) with the sea. He spent years building his own boat, called the Três Marias, and finally at the age of 31 set sail on a 14-month solo voyage around the world. More circumnavigations followed as well as expeditions to Antarctica and to the Arctic. We also learn about such passion projects as the sailboat-school Fraternidade, which he designed, and the Museum of the Sea in Salvador.
This is Abubakir’s first time directing a documentary, which is impressive given that he is but 22 years old. It is by no means, however, his first film. Four years ago I praised his seven-and-a-half-minute epic The Great Father on which he collaborated with Luiz Humberto Campos—who also contributes to the new film—when they were in secondary school.
Tiago Abubakir
Not unlike its subject, Belov: A Life at Sea has been traveling the world. It had its European premiere in July at the Ocean Films Húsavík festival in Iceland followed by screenings at festivals in Spain and Italy. On the same day as its hometown opening in Salvador, it also played at the Friday Harbor Film Festival in the U.S. state of Washington, where it won the Best Overall Young Filmmakers Showcase Audience Choice Award. Next year it will screen at the Festival de Cine del Mar in Concepción, Chile.
As I said, it kind of takes one’s breath away. I look forward with much anticipation to seeing what Abubakir does next and on into the future.
-S.L., 16 November 2024
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