The Voyage of the Hérétique

In 1952, scientist Alain Bombard, wishing to show the way for all future victims of shipwrecks, embarked on an experiment that was widely publicised. This was largely due to the fact that it seemed a bold challenge: to survive one hundred days, crossing the Atlantic in a rubber dinghy, with minimal equipment, and without water or food. Didier Nion tackles the fascinating story of Bombard (already the subject of a documentary he had made in 2012, Bombard le naufragé volontaire) in what could have been a conventional biopic. But rather than justify and explain, he focuses on the idea of the voyage of initiation, as a source of meditation on the state of extreme solitude and the relationship between body and mind. (AH)