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.
