A rather incredible life story about the old sailor Paul Johnson is brought to us by Slovakian filmmaker Lucia Kasova. This Slovak documentary filmmaker headed to the Caribbean, specifically to the bay near the islet of Carriacou in Granada, where in recent years an eccentric 80-year-old found a home. He lives on an old sailboat that is apparently in a rather dilapidated state today, and although at first we may assume that Johnson is some random weirdo, we will soon realize that he was a serious guy.
Not only did he cross the Atlantic 40 times in a sailboat, but he also constructed and designed sailboats on which he once made a good living, and now he is squeezing the last remnants of his savings. Today, anyone on the fucking internet can find my blueprints, whereas once upon a time I was making a thousand dollars for every sailboat built to my design, says an old and wrinkled guy as he slams his beer-drenched rum. I don’t see why I should stop drinking now, and I don’t drink more than half a liter of rum a day anyway, claims the weirdo as he reveals that America is probably full of his children he made in the sixties, which he remembers wistfully.
And he tells his life story in OFF while the camera follows him during his daily activities and daily trips to the land for alcohol supplies or while looking for some of his old records or fascinating pictures that he once painted on the lower deck of the sailboat. I didn’t expect to live so long, repeats several times this person who may look like some kind of bum, but we will understand very quickly that he had a rich, meaningful and incredible life that only a few can boast of. However, he is aware that that life is behind him and now in solitude as if he is waiting for death, which actually met him shortly after the premiere of this award-winning art documentary.