Life Is on Earth

“As a first-person narrative, the film tells the story of a crossing I made aboard a 300,000-tonne supertanker from Le Havre to the Gulf, accompanied by a photographer friend Anne-Françoise Brillot. The journey took one month with no intermediary ports of call. The film describes the life and work of this closed-in space, the relations between men of different nationalities and seniority, and our gradual integration into the crew of 11 Frenchmen and 21 Bulgarians. Coexistence between the French and Bulgarians is a difficult affair, besides sailors do not talk much anyway. I tried to understand what opposed them and what drew them closer together. For four weeks, 24 hours a day, we shared exactly the same conditions as these men. I filmed what I experienced, what I felt, what I analysed. My heart went out to these men and I felt deep emotion for their humanity in all its complexity. Their story is a drop in the ocean of all those that tell of the international division of labour.” (Pascaline Simar)