Is a yacht suitable as a film studio?

No, we approached it very naively, I have to say with hindsight. Our team is made up of ten people, we couldn't fit them all on board, and we had to leave most of the 15 suitcases full of equipment ashore. It was also 35 degrees in the shade and very humid. And our sound man was cancelled because he got seasick...

Was it the first time all of you were on board a sailing yacht?

Not our cameraman. He's done it before. But I think that was the last time for our sound man too.

Its protagonist, the Bavarian Wolfgang Clement, known as "Gangerl", is an old acquaintance to loyal YACHT readers. He got out 38 years ago and has been sailing around the world in his "Bavaria" ever since...

Yes, and the idea was to accompany him with the camera and portray him. And the dramaturgical aspect then became a much greater difficulty than the unusual circumstances...

In what way? That's your core business!

Well, we travelled to Bali on board the "Bavaria" with the image that the Gangerl is a completely free person who is out there realising his dream and experiencing adventure. And we realised that such an existence is very different from our image. That it involves an incredible amount of reduction and a life at the limit. And also with money worries and technical constraints. We decided to show this in the film and not to cling desperately to the image of the carefree adventurer that people at home would like to see. Instead, we really wanted to portray reality as it is. That was the most important and at the same time the most painful thing to realise. Ultimately, this whole project is designed for total solitude. On the one hand, it's incredibly free, but on the other hand it's also very sad, even depressing in a way.

Did you get closer to the person than you wanted to?

I wouldn't put it like that, but Gangerl is also 83 years old and has already gone through his development. I didn't realise how much life at sea changes a character. He's socially acceptable in a different way than when you talk to someone in Germany. He doesn't feel like pretending any more, he just says everything straight out because he doesn't care what people think, I don't think.

You have already gone to unusual lengths before the shoot...

... yes, until we were promised film funding, and until we were clear about it: when does Gangerl have time, when does the team have time, where do we go, because the route is interesting ... This whole process took four years.

Did the hermit immediately and enthusiastically agree to your plan?

No, he had great reservations until the very end. That's obvious, he more or less left society almost 40 years ago and didn't really want to have anything more to do with something like this. And then there's a whole film crew, that's quite frightening, such a huge camera and this mass of film equipment.

He disappears right at the beginning of the film...

Exactly. So that's just the Gangerl: if something gets too much for him, he just leaves. But after three days he was back and we could carry on.

Were there any other bizarre situations?

Yes, I don't even know where to start. So much has happened. We lost the propeller in a fishing net and had to fall dry to fit a new one. Another time we ran aground on a reef. It was close to the Gangerl losing his boat. We couldn't even switch on the camera because it was so hectic. You can plan as well as you like, on a sailing boat and out at sea, nature makes the rules, not a director. You have to make sure that you somehow take what you can get.

Were you never afraid?

No. I've always trusted it. We had a storm right at the beginning. It's not in the film because it all happened very quickly. Gangerl was sleeping below deck and was there immediately. He stood up there completely naked and made two or three moves so that everything was safe. The man knows exactly what he's doing, nothing happens.