Seafarers

The protagonist of this documentary, that takes the audience from underneath the blazing sun to the middle of icebergs and through the seven seas, is Jalmar “Jallu” Yrjänen. He is a young seaman from Rauma, Finland, whose fate was to be swallowed by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean as the only fatality of the shipwreck of his vessel, the M/S Mercur, on 8 December, 1925. Milja Viita’s collage film combines primary source material such as letters and logbooks with archival film footage shot between the 1960s and the 1990s. The authentic footage lets us have a glimpse into the day-to-day life of seafarers far from their home ports.