Original subtitles

(air plane rumbling)

It all started with a hijacking

in November 1972.

(plane roaring)

♪

I was flying home to Mexico City

from an anthropological conference

on the history of violence.

♪

When suddenly, a group of terrorists

took over the flight.

♪

It was too good to be true.

I mean, imagine the irony.

Me, a scientist who has spent my whole career

studying violent behavior,

ends up in the middle of a hijacking drama.

♪

All my life, I had wanted to know

why people fight,

and really understand what is going on inside our minds.

♪

When the hijacking was over,

I realized that if I could create a similar situation,

it would be the perfect laboratory

to study human behavior.

But where can you isolate a group of people

and expose them to danger?

♪

Then...

I had the idea.

♪

♪

(machinery beeping)

The first time I saw the raft,

I was excited and a little frightened.

I didn't know sailing,

I didn't know anything about what we were going to do

except that we were going to cross the ocean.

In 1973, I was 23 years old,

I was married and I had two children.

I was intellectually hungry

for information about so many things

and I loved science.

On the raft, we were part of

a huge exploratory mission

to find answers

to what makes people have conflict

and what makes people not have conflict.

We were going to answer questions

about why we hate each other.

♪

11th of May, 1973.

♪

Tonight, the ten volunteers

arrived in the Canary Islands.

It was the first time they met.

♪

Ten brave strangers were about to spend

the next three months isolated together on a raft.

I found them by placing an advertisement

in several international newspapers.

Announcing that an Expedition Leader

looks for volunteers to sail on a raft

across the Atlantic.

Hundreds of people wanted to go.

But only ten were selected.

To create tensions in the group,

I have chosen men and women

from different nationalities,

religions, and social backgrounds.

Basically, a microcosm of the world.

And as a captain of the whole expedition,

I have invited Maria Bjornstam

from Sweden, the first woman in the world

with a Professional Sea Captain's Degree.

♪

♪

So we are back again.

♪

I remember those.

♪

Where the windows like this?

Very nice.

♪

Where was exactly the cooking, here?

-Yes, no no no. -Where was it to be had

-the cooking. -The mast...

was here.

♪

(radio chatter)

I have named the raft Acali.

Which in an ancient Mexican language

means 'The house on the water'.

♪

Acali will cross the Atlantic Ocean

only drifting with the currents and the winds.

There is no motor, no following boats,

and no way of turning back.

♪

I mean, I know it is dangerous,

but I think the group hasn't really realized...

yet.

♪

But in a dangerous situation,

I believe that people will act

with their instincts

and as a social anthropologist,

I will be able to study their behavior

clearer than ever before.

♪

Captain Maria is the only

professional sailor on board.

And she knows that the ocean

is not going to be a playground.

♪

(footsteps)

Now I want to show the life harness,

and we use it's okay.

Ah.

That should be on the back, yes.

-Then your arms. -Right, Mary, this outside.

Yeah.

Uh-huh, uh-huh.

Oh, okay.

Yup.

And here, this is my greatest fear

that someone should fall overboard.

-Good. -Yes.

-Okay. -You will stay on the raft.

Yes.

♪

Say 'Cheese'.

♪

There we are, all 11 of us.

That was taken right before we left.

Now 43 years later,

there's only seven of us still alive.

It was an unusual idea, the experiment,

but it didn't strike me

as being too crazy

because I, you know, I thought, why not.

(camera clicking)

And at the time, I had started working

as a waitress in a restaurant

and it was beginning to feel like a dead-end.

It seemed like Santiago's offer of going on the Acali

would be just the kind of break

and rebirth that I would need for my life,

and I was, you know, ready for a change.

That's what I wanted, was a change.

♪

The day we left, there were a lot of people there.

Like we were doing something really big.

It almost felt like we were celebrities.

♪

♪

It was like we were astronauts

being launched into space

and we were free, we were flying.

♪

♪

To reach the current that will take us across the ocean

we had to be towed out by a motor boat.

♪

Just as we were enjoying our first meal together,

something unexpected happened.

Captain Maria's boyfriend,

who was aboard the towing boat

to wave us goodbye, suddenly panicked

and demanded to speak to Maria on the radio.

(horn honking)

(radio chatting)

-Maria, do you read me? -Yes.

The contract, nobody looked through the contract.

Which seems to be a slave contract, really.

It says that you should give up your body,

your mind, and everything to Santiago.

Is that a method of a scientist.

So what do you think about it, tell me the truth.

No it wasn't written anything about 'mind.'

What about 'mind' and about 'body'

you should do exactly as he wants to at any time.

That means that you, as a captain,

might get into trouble with him.

You know what I think about that paper

and I didn't sign it.

-Maria, do you read me? -Yes.

Can you do it against me, I mean, do you like

to go on the raft now,

or do you want to leave the raft?

Yes, as I had said 'yes' to Santiago,

I said "yes I stayed" and I was angry like hell.

Olaf on the one side and Santiago on the raft

on the other side and I was in the middle

had to decide what to do.

Really, it was incredible event

because you accept to go

and at the last minute

after we left,

the boyfriend said you don't go.

-Don't go. -Don't go, Maria, please!

You're all going to die.

Did he say you much choose between the raft or me.

-Yes. -Yes, he said.

It was like--I was like a film

because really like drama.

(waves crashing)

♪

♪

Late at night, we finally reach the current

and the boat set us free.

♪

Throwing the rope into the water

felt like cutting the umbilical cord.

♪

As the sound of the towing boat's motor faded away,

the roaring noise of the ocean took over.

(ocean roaring)

Finally, we are at sea.

(boat creaking)

From animal tests in laboratories,

we know that aggression can we triggered

by putting different kinds of rats

in a limited space.

I want to find out if it's the same for humans.

Is violence something that

is built into our genes?

Or is it something that we learn?

Will an isolated group of people on a raft

cooperate to survive?

Or will the situation create conflicts

and make them fight against each other?

Wow, this is like-- like home again.

-It is. -But there's something wrong,

I should be right here, that was my bunk.

-Yes, and my place was here. -Oh, right, yes.

-H--how? -And your place here?

-I was there and you were here. -Here, in your own bunk.

-Yes. -We had numbers right?

-Yes, three. -Who was there?

-Rachida. -Rachida.

-Bernardo. -Mary.

-Mary. -Charles.

-Charles. -Seven.

-Maria. -Maria.

-Eisuke. -Eisuke.

-Me, Fe. -Fe.

Jose Maria was number ten and you.

-I was 11. -You were 11.

Underneath your medical supplies.

Yes, I had a medical things in the corner.

They too, moved the experiment.

The raft is moving more heavily in the waves

than we expected.

And some of the crew are suffering from sea sickness.

♪

Night and day, two people will be responsible

for steering and keeping watch.

We have to make sure that we stay on course

and don't collide with any ships.

Every two days,

we get weather reports over the radio.

And once a week, I send out a report

which sums up the situation on board.

Today, the United Nations

has sent a message to Acali,

wishing us luck

on our important mission

for world peace.

This is a map

of the North Atlantic Ocean.

We started from Las Palmas on Gran Canaria

and the plan was to cross the Atlantic Ocean

drifting by winds and currents

all the way over to Mexico

on the other side.

(waves crashing)

People have been asking me

why I chose to bring

both men and woman on board.

Well, the world consists of

both men and women

and as women are becoming

more equal in society,

I wanted Acali to address this change.

So on the raft,

I have decided to give the power to the women.

♪

And let them have the more important roles.

♪

While making the males jobs less significant.

♪

I wonder if having women in power

will lead to less violence.

♪

Or if there will be more.

♪

Will the men become frustrated

when the women are in charge?

And slowly try to take over the power?

♪

Whatever happens,

I will study it and learn.

(machinery clanking)

Before we went on the raft, we had to go through

a series of mental and physical tests.

♪

I remember, they took swabs

of all of our body parts.

They tested our hearts, our ears, our eyes,

physically we had to run and do basically CAT Scans,

x-rays, and we had a psychologist come in

and test us.

They asked us questions about, "What would you do,

what would you do if

somebody threatened you, how would you handle it?

Would you kill somebody and why?

What would push you to kill somebody.

What would be the thing that

would push you over the edge?"

♪

Together with a group of psychologists,

I have prepared questionnaires for the participants.

Where I will ask them things like,

"Who annoys you the most on the raft?"

And, "To whom do you feel the closest to and why?"

And, "If you could get rid of one the others,

who would it be?"

♪

Every week, there will be new questions to answer

because anything could be important for the studies.

♪

I'll read from the second page.

"Do you think that some people on Acali are violent,

yes or no?

-If yes, who?" -Oh.

"Do you think that your own violence

might come to the surface in a moment of fear, yes or no?"

I think there's potential for anybody to be violent.

Well, I think all of us, you know, backed into a corner

had potential but the potential was not on the surface

or even in the middle, it was way, way, way, way down.

(waves crashing)

Day 22 of the experiment.

Today, we have been out at sea for three weeks.

Now we are so far away from land

that we have stopped seeing birds in the sky.

Out here, the group is forced

to be together all the time.

(laughter)

-Together. -All aboard.

And as reading books is not allowed,

the only entertainment they have

is singing songs

or telling each other stories

from their lives on land.

Which seem to create

a feeling of belonging,

and peacefulness.

Far away from the rules of normal society,

we are free to reinvent

both ourselves

and our relationships with others.

The last few days,

people have started to get bored.

But to a scientist, like me,

boredom is exciting

because it might trigger interesting forms

of social behavior.

Which can be a real spark

for the dynamics of the group.

Sooner or later,

something new and unexpected will happen.

I'm happy that that's how you felt.

-You were also very beautiful. -Oh, no.

Yes you were.

But a very nice young boy.

Well, it was very nice to be with you

alone for an hour.

Yes.

-Hm. -Hm.

♪

Scientific studies with monkeys

have shown that there is a connection

between violence and sexuality.

Where most of the conflicts among the male monkeys

are about sexual access

to ovulating females.

To verify if it is the same for humans,

I have selected participants

who are sexually attractive.

♪

And because sex is related to guilt and shame,

I have places amongst them, Bernardo.

A catholic priest from Angola

to see what will happen.

I have also selected Jose Maria,

a young and good looking anthropologist

from Uruguay.

And from the answers to the questionnaires,

I know that all the women think

he is the most attractive man on the raft.

♪

And Charles,

who is the owner of a Greek restaurant in Cambridge

and who has a fiancé at home,

has already started flirting

with Rachida.

The youngest in the group,

only 23.

♪

And of course,

this pretty girl from Paris

is the most popular woman among the men.

♪

♪

♪

♪

He asked me if I would be willing

to have sexual relations with other people

and I said, "Probably not, but you never know,

but my instinct tell me 'no'".

And then of course when I saw the men,

I knew it was no.

♪

♪

(waves crashing)

(wind howling)

Ah, our toilet, huh?

It was a big thing, the toilet.

I show how we were sitting in it, yes.

-Oh, that was pretty smooth. -Yeah.

Ah, it's quite comfortable.

It seemed like we were supposed to lose

all of our inhibitions

and this was one thing that

usually people do privately.

But we were going to be totally open about everything

and so this was part of the plan.

At first, it was a big problem

for some of us, I know.

In the beginning some had really constipation.

-Yeah. -Because of problem

-to go in the toilet. -I was afraid

because we had sharks following us

and I'd seen them in a feeding frenzy.

I was afraid, if I had my period,

I sat down, uh, that the sharks

would be right there on me.

So before I sat down, I would look

and I'd scan the horizon for fins,

for movement of any kind,

and then I would sit down and go as fast as I could.

I didn't want to be part of the frothy blood in the water.

Well, actually, me I was mostly sitting on the other side.

I was sitting like that.

I remember that.

And showing to everybody my back

and also, I used this place

like my refugee place.

Once I was sad and wanted to cry a little bit,

so I went to this place and cried

and I didn't want the others to watch it.

(waves crashing)

Captain Maria is worried about our speed.

♪

She thinks we have started too late in the year,

and that we are going too slow.

With this speed we will enter the Caribbean Sea

right in the middle of the hurricane season.

♪

And that, she thinks, would be suicide.

♪

She knew before we left

that risking our lives

will be part of the experiment.

♪

But out here, her only concern is safety

and not science.

I remember we had a questionnaire

was about the raft, and Maria wrote something like,

"I hate the raft."

And Santiago did not

want to accept that answer from anybody

because he said that our raft is beautiful.

So, I mean, he really wasn't after a, you know,

truthful answer

but Maria kept giving him the truth.

♪

Today, during dinner Captain Maria

asked me in front of the group

what I really want to achieve

with the experiment.

Everyone got silent

and waited for my answer.

♪

I told her that,

"I want to find a way to create peace on Earth".

♪

She just rolled her eyes

and looked away.

I remember sometimes just seeing them

seething at each other,

just, you know, he would be saying something

and she'd be saying something

and I don't have a good recollection

of what was being said

but basically she said, "No".

Question, "How often do you masturbate?"

And it goes from one to ten times a month.

"Have you masturbated on Acali, yes or no?"

And the answers go from one to ten times a month.

I don't count.

Seemed like Acali was the last place

I would ever want to masturbate.

It would be like masturbating in the park,

you know, along where people walk.

-I mean, it just-- -It was much more crowded

than in a park, you were always very, very--

-Close. -...close to each other, yes.

Um, I like this one.

"With whom on the Acali have you had sexual contact?"

(chuckling)

It asks, you know, "If you had had sex how many times

and if it was with different persons

how many were there?"

Many, many.

Many, many, everybody.

I understood Santiago

that he gave those questions,

because we promised we were going to be very honest--

I didn't promise anything.

In sake of the--

of the scientific experiment.

So maybe, I understood it that way and I wrote--

or really answered as much as possible, the truth.

But then you're a scientist.

So in the beginning, maybe most of you were very serious

-and would like to please him. -Yeah.

And I said, I am not filling in anything.

Every week, I make the participants draw a tree.

It's a graphological test

that reveals changes in their inner lives.

♪

Depending on how they draw the tree,

it gives me clues to

their psychological state of mind.

♪

Big and steady roots signal harmony,

while many branches going in different directions

is a clear sign of aggression.

From the results

I can tell that violence is present

deep down in their subconscious.

♪

But so far...

it has been resting under the surface.

♪

(water thrashing)

♪

Today, when we were fishing

we caught a shark.

♪

Everyone gathered around it.

Playing, laughing,

and daring each other to touch it.

♪

Someone said that we should put it back into the ocean,

but Jose Maria ran to get an axe

and starting hitting the shark.

♪

It was like a primitive instinct

had awoken inside of this,

otherwise so gentle

and calm young man.

♪

He cut through the chest

and ripped out the heart.

♪

"Look," he said,

"the heart is still beating."

♪

It was like turning on a switch.

♪

Suddenly, everyone wanted to feel the flesh

that was still warm with life.

♪

♪

Finally, here it was.

The violent behavior that I have been waiting for.

But to my surprise,

it didn't come from sexual jealousy

or from conflicts between the participants.

Instead, we witness a clear example

of crowd frenzy.

Where people no longer act as individuals

but as part of a dangerous collective.

(wind howling)

I think we've had a breakthrough

in the experiment.

(squeaking)

But before I went to sleep,

I decided to hide the axe,

just to be safe.

♪

Take a look.

-This is a lot of data. -Look at all the colors.

This is the entire voyage from the start to the finish.

-Oh, right, -101 days.

This is the raw data that

he compiled into graphs.

And looks like we have every person here.

Oh yes, our numbers one through eleven.

-Number nine, is that you? -Yes.

Okay, that's us,

we were the guinea pigs.

Strange.

-Um, frustration. -Lots of frustration.

So this is day 24,

when I wasn't sea sick anymore.

-I don't know. -This is amazing.

Sexual pressure or tension.

Yes, I wonder how he measured that.

Yeah, I do too.

Oh, look, he has a block for menstrual periods.

Yeah.

♪

Day after day,

I observe the participants

and take notes of everything

to see if anything is connected.

♪

I write down their tensions, anxieties,

dreams, and frustrations.

And I compare them with nature,

the size of the waves,

the temperature,

and even the cycle of the moon.

♪

(waves crashing)

To drift on a small raft

is a hypnotizing experience.

You can get stuck for hours,

just staring into the horizon.

But looking at the same scenery

day in and day out

can play tricks on your brain.

Old sailors have a name for it,

they call it 'ocean vertigo.'

After some time,

when we hit the southern region

I started to have visions.

And I realized that I was probably the first

African American actually floating back

from Africa to America-- to the Americas

the same way the slave ships had gone.

♪

That was...

one of the most incredible experiences of my life.

♪

I would sit on the starboard side

and I'd look over the water.

♪

Sometimes it would be quiet enough

that I could start to hear voices,

you know, coming from down there.

♪

I heard my ancestors who'd gone over in the slave ships.

I can hear them calling me.

They could feel me sailing over their bodies

and their tragedies.

♪

They were still down there and they'd been down there

for hundreds of years with no one to talk to.

And finally, they found a place

where they could be alive again for a minute,

for a few minutes.

And it followed me across the Atlantic

and then it stopped.

These people got to live again, through my body.

-Through you. -Through me.

Which is unusual,

and it was one of the best things

that happened to me to let my heart beat for them.

-For that time. -Right.

Yeah.

So, there's that disconnect that most of us feel,

-but for me, I actually go to-- -Connect, reconnect.

-Connect. -Yes.

This was the first time

my people talked to me.

-Did you share that with anyone? -No.

-Never? -No.

-This is the first time? -Yeah.

There was something that you start talking about it,

you heard things, you felt this static electricity come up

and move, start pumping in your blood.

You don't say that to people, you know,

it's so intimate.

I actually never expect to be believed.

-Really? -Yeah.

Fe, I wish you would've told me.

I had no idea.

There's so little we knew about each other.

-I know. -Now it's 43 years later.

But, you know, on the raft, I felt like we were under siege,

and it didn't feel like a good time

to share true things.

In a way, although, Santiago said

that we were supposed to have intimate, you know,

converse--I guess-- but I think he was talking

more about sex than he was talking about...

-As it turned out. -...getting to know each other.

(wind gusting)

♪

♪

(engine whirring)

Santiago was a lot like my husband.

He was a real macho man.

I mean, he had a lot of charm,

and he was physically strong,

and he was, like, very much a leader,

and had very big ideas.

I certainly liked him a lot.

You're telling me that you had a, maybe a little crush

-on Santiago? -He was exactly

the kind of guy that I was,

you know, always seeking, you know.

I was just, like, that's what I was just getting out of,

was very similar type person as Santiago.

(water burbling)

You know, about a couple months before we went on Acali

they had an experience of real violence,

where I thought I was gonna be killed.

What happened?

Well, I was like--

well, we lived on a boat, you know,

and we were anchored out, so you had to row back and forth.

and my husband, Cass, you know, he was very strong.

He was a fisherman.

And he basically settled arguments by blows.

By physical violence.

But, I was on the boat, I thought alone,

with my friend, a girlfriend,

and I was telling her that I really wanted to get a divorce,

and then, all of a sudden, Cass appeared.

-Oh. -You know,

he yelled at me for a while,

and then it was more like grabbing me.

-Oh. -And I remember he,

I felt, at one point, that he was gonna strangle me.

So, I ran and jumped off the boat.

I saved myself.

I think the Acali, for me, one reason I really

decided to go was it would be an escape.

-So you were safe. -Yes.

Protected.

(creaking)

(indistinct chatter)

Day 51 of the experiment.

Now, we are halfway across the ocean.

♪

Since the incident with the shark,

there has been no signs of violence or aggression,

and there are no new sexual relationships developing.

♪

And the results of the questioners

don't seem to lead anywhere.

♪

I can feel that the group

has lost interest in the experiment.

♪

They clearly don't understand

what I am trying to do.

♪

Instead of supporting me,

they behave like a bunch of children.

♪

And they are getting lazy.

♪

No one seemed to remember

that we are out here

trying to find an answer

to the most important question

of our time:

Can we do without war?

♪

I called for a meeting where I told the group

that we are getting too comfortable with each other,

and that from now on,

things will need to change

on the raft.

I have decided to play a game

that I call "The game of truth."

Until now, I have kept all the answers

to the questionnaires' secret.

But today, I decided

to read them out loud.

I began by saying that Edna

has written that she wants to have sex

with José María.

But, José María has written

that he thinks Edna is the most annoying woman

he has ever met

because she talks all the time.

♪

These feelings can't be hidden anymore.

They have to stop being so afraid

of confrontation,

and be open about what they really feel

about each other,

so that I can finally get

some material to study.

♪

(indistinct remarks)

♪

(alarm sounding)

♪

(fan whirring)

One time, Santiago threw a bucket of water

right in my face.

It was like a shock treatment.

Maybe he was seeing what he could get away with with me

before I would get angry.

He called me a primitive,

and a thief, and lazy.

All the stereotypes, he threw them at me.

♪

♪

He would go to a person, individually,

and say, "This other person said this about you.

How do you feel about that?

Do you feel you should take some action?"

♪

He was a master manipulator,

and so you got this force of will going against you.

♪

He said some horrific things to me.

What kind of awful things he said?

He suggested that I should have a sexual relationship

with Bernardo.

-He suggested-- -He said, "Well, you guys were,

you know, black.

It should be natural for you to be attracted to each other."

-No. -And I said, "This isn't,

this isn't the way it works," but he thought

so little of me, and Bernardo,

that he thought that we would just naturally gravitate

toward each other.

-As if. -You think he was a racist?

I don't have a-- I'd put money on it.

It wasn't because he was bad in his heart,

it's just that he had some old-fashioned beliefs.

He had old-fashioned ideas.

He was never-- you were never in my shoes.

Of course he wouldn't be racist in your eyes, because

he never said anything to you.

Mm.

I must say that never Santiago

have an illusion of where I come from.

-Maybe not you, but if you-- -No, but he don't,

he don't fight me like an Arabic woman.

It never interfered in the relation.

I, I never heard what he say,

"Oh, as, as you are."

You were the most beaut-- you were the beauty, you know.

You were the, the, you were the beauties of the raft.

Basically.

He's not gonna tell you to sleep with Bernardo.

He didn't ask Mary, he didn't ask Maria.

Okay.

-It's good. -Mhm.

-Okay. -Yes.

(wind gusting)

(birds cawing)

Day 84 of the experiment.

We have now entered the Caribbean Sea.

The weather is warmer, and the birds

are back in the sky.

In a few weeks, if everything goes well,

we should arrive in Mexico.

(indistinct radio frequencies)

Tonight, we were told that the newspapers

have turned the expedition into a big scandal.

(typewriter sounds)

No one is reporting about

the scientific experiment anymore.

They are only writing about sex.

(typing)

One of the articles is statement

signed by some of my colleagues at the university,

where I have been working for over 20 years.

The write that the publicity about the "Sex Raft"

is bad for the reputation of the university.

From now on, they don't want to have anything

to do with me,

or my expedition.

♪

What if the experiment

doesn't lead to anything?

And I risked all of our lives

for nothing?

♪

I can feel that the others

are starting to sense my insecurity.

♪

I am tired and sad.

And I feel completely misunderstood.

♪

He worked so hard to make this happen,

and have it fall apart.

We all know what it's like to have a dream fall apart.

It's horrible.

But, he had more at stake because he was in his 50s,

he was probably not gonna get another shot like this.

(creaking)

And it wasn't working.

♪

Tropical Storm Brenda is in the southern half

of the Gulf of Mexico and heading northwest.

Brenda's expected to become a hurricane later today

and reach the Mexican coast sometime tomorrow.

The Skylab astronauts have been watching the storm now

for several days, and today they took some more pictures of it.

Okay, sir, we got it on TV now.

This picture is somewhat ineffective,

but it's quite well defined.

(waves sloshing)

(wind gusting)

A tropical storm is coming,

and the group is scared.

But, I can't help but feel excited.

♪

A dangerous hurricane might be exactly

what we need for the experiment to evolve.

♪

Of course, Maria tells me

that she thinks that the only solution

is to take shelter in the closest Caribbean island,

and stop the expedition.

♪

But, if the group comes into contact with civilization,

it will contaminate the experiment.

♪

We need to keep ourselves isolated,

and stay at sea.

♪

For the sake of science,

we must continue.

No matter what.

♪

Maria said that she can't take that responsibility

as a captain.

I told her that, in that case,

she is no longer the captain

of the raft.

(creaking)

♪

From now on,

I am the captain.

(raining and thundering)

(wind whistling)

I started to give orders to prepare the raft

for the worst.

(wind gusting)

We tied up everything that was loose,

and made sure that the films

and all my notes got wrapped up in plastic.

Then, I commanded everyone to quickly get inside

the cabin, and lock the door.

(door closing)

Outside, the sky was getting darker,

and it started to rain.

(thundering)

We just sat there, staring at each other.

Waiting for the storm to come.

Maria was silent,

and I could tell that she was close to tears.

(rain pattering)

After some time, the sea calmed down,

and the rain stopped.

(water sloshing)

The hurricane must have changed direction,

and only brushed us by its tail.

(birds cawing)

I looked at Maria,

but she didn't look back.

After that, you remember,

you, you go to your bed,

during 15 days, I think.

Do you remember? You stopped, almost stopped eating.

And you, you lost a lot of weight.

Maybe I went to bed and put my blanket over my head,

but not for many days, just for some hours.

I have this image of you, very--

under the blanket, and not eating,

-and so-- -She didn't want to see anybody.

Yes, yes, you were upset

about--you didn't talk with anyone, you were--

Yes, yes, of course I was

both angry and sad,

and depressed.

I mean, there is a real special

law at sea, and this what Santiago made to me

was real mutiny.

-Yes. -And mutiny is,

the penalty is death.

♪

(heavily exhaling)

♪

♪

(cigarette burning)

♪

♪

Let's talk about Santiago.

Didn't it make you angry that he took away

your captain title?

I became silent,

and put, wore--

Yep.

-On myself. -Yes, yes.

I didn't want to show anything

of my, what I felt, or my soul, or--

-Right. -My feelings.

Just, let, stay inside.

-Yeah. -And when I get very angry,

-I cry. -Yeah.

And he has written several times

that the captain is crying,

and that doesn't, doesn't

look very good, indeed,

-because-- -No.

But, I cry for anger, my God.

-Yes. -I am not fighting.

-I am crying. -Yep.

I've also had that experience where it's, first reaction is,

rather than to kill somebody, is let the tears go.

-It's almost like a buffer. -Right, right.

Between what you feel

and what you could do.

And that is even a thing about women.

We don't fight, we cry

when we are angry.

-That's so true. -Yeah.

I remember one time watching you,

the rage boiling off of you.

-Yeah. -And I remember looking at you,

saying, "That tear is coming out because she's holding back

her rage, enormous amount of rage."

And I felt that tear come down, and it felt like defeat,

but the thing is, you're so much stronger,

because you don't rip his throat out.

'Cause you could, you could've.

(machine whirring)

And then, the idea kind of

lit like a match.

You could feel the electricity start.

(thundering)

But, we were thinking it altogether at the same time,

and having the same thought,

"Should we do it, should we do it, should we do it?"

Shh.

Murder.

(lightning striking)

I'll never forget the time that we had a meeting

up here with some of us.

I was here, Eisuke-san was here,

Mary, you were here,

and there was all of us sitting around,

facing each other, and coming to the realization

-that he was a threat. -Mhm.

At the time, I guess, he was downstairs

in the cabin--is that right?

-Yes. -And this is because

he was not present at the time that we were able

to talk about that.

And I know Eisuke,

he had some bad feelings about Santiago.

The fantasy I felt, that, actually happened,

close to happen, would be with Eisuke.

With Eisuke doing our dirty work for us.

-Wow. -And--yes.

And we, you know, would look the other way,

and perhaps it would just be Eisuke and Santiago on deck.,

and sort of rough, pretty rough weather.

You know, where an accident like that could happen.

So, maybe--Eisuke said,

"Uh, move over a little more that way."

-To take the, the picture. -Ohh okay.

And then, bam!

-Yeah. -Uhh, he fall overboard.

-You could've, right? -Yes.

-Yes. -I thought

the best thing would be to somehow distract Edna,

and steal some of her drugs,

and give him an injection

to stop his heart.

But, I thought, in order for us all

to be together,

we would have to do it together, so we would all

put our hand on the hand, on top of the hand,

on top of the hand, and plunge it into him.

You know, like everybody stabs the bad guy.

So, everybody's guilty, that's how I saw it.

-Right. -And we would wrap him

in a sheet, and we would all, together, each one,

pick him up, and carry him over the railing,

and drop him.

I remember becoming very frightened,

because, in my experience,

small talk and conversation

can quickly escalate to action.

And I was afraid that we were actually thinking

and maybe escalating a little bit, and a little bit,

and maybe escalating to the point

where we acted, and I was frightened.

Because we were at sea, it wasn't like we were on land.

All of the normal things were gone.

For that one moment, I really did see

that we had it in us

to do something terrible

for survival.

Yes.

♪

I woke up in the middle of the night.

(creaking)

The others were sleeping peacefully around me.

♪

But somehow,

I felt completely alone.

My whole body hurt,

and I started shaking.

♪

And I cried

for the first time

since I was a child.

♪

When I was a boy, I learned that

men never cry.

We control ourselves.

♪

But suddenly, I couldn't anymore.

♪

Out on the deck,

I thought about the experiment.

(rumbling)

I realized that the only one

who has actually showed

any kind of aggression

or violence on the raft

is me.

The man trying to control

everyone else,

including himself.

(waves sloshing)

♪

It was early in the morning,

and we were asleep,

when all of a sudden, someone came screaming,

"There's a ship coming down on us!"

♪

Everybody jumped up and went outside,

and there was a freighter.

It was like a monster ship that was headed

right in our direction.

So, I was on the radio trying to contact 'em.

♪

"This is the raft Acali, this is the raft Acali

calling 8 Papa Oscar, this is the raft Acali

calling 8 Papa Oscar, over."

(radio beeping)

And I said it over and over and over,

and nobody answered back.

♪

Santiago panicked.

But, Maria was very calm.

She started give us orders, so we knew what to do.

♪

I waved the flares back and forth

trying to get their attention.

If they didn't see us, we would be dead.

♪

(whirring)

The ship changed course,

and we barely escaped.

(horn blowing)

After that, Maria, again, was the captain.

Santiago was unable to make the position.

It was just,

he wasn't the captain.

Nobody regaled Santiago as a captain.

♪

It reinforced the reality

that we suspected,

that you have to obey her,

because she's gonna keep us alive.

♪

It was never the same after that.

What do you say to somebody who

created this amazing thing,

and now you no longer believe in him?

♪

He became thinner,

and raggedier looking,

and didn't participate anymore, he didn't give out

any more questionnaires.

♪

He didn't write furiously all day.

♪

He withdrew.

He just collapsed basically,

and became ill.

(rumbling)

I thought he was doing it for publicity.

He was not really sick 'cause he wanted

to have something happen.

Mary, I'm like you, I,

I didn't take it seriously, his sickness.

-I didn't believe in it. -No, I didn't believe it.

-No, I took it serious. -I thought he did it

to kinda protest, because he didn't want

to lose power,

but he didn't wanna lose face either.

So, he just, he made himself sick.

He really had an infection, this is a--

I don't know if you remember, after this illness,

-He was quiet, and he-- -Yes.

-He left us in peace. -And then when he

kind of got silent, it was like, "Thank you."

♪

♪

We became like a very tight tribe.

That doesn't happen in normal life,

especially when you have so many different cultures,

and so many different languages,

so many different religious groups,

but we flat-lined, and became

a group, like a pod, almost like a pod

of the same animal.

(laughing)

♪

♪

I am alone inside the cabin,

listening to the group dancing,

and playing music outside.

I lost count of the days.

The fever makes my blood pump faster through my veins,

and my mind is overheated

with new thoughts and ideas.

♪

I conceive a new raft,

and a whole new experiment.

♪

But, the new raft

would be much smaller than this one.

Just big enough for one person,

lying down,

and the bottom should be made of glass,

so that I can drift across the ocean

one more time, looking through the glass,

and into the depths

of the water,

just by myself.

(wind gusting)

(water sloshing)

(indistinct chatter)

(birds cawing)

(whirring)

(indistinct remarks)

Stepping ashore was a very strange feeling.

(crickets chirping)

(birds cawing)

It was 101 days that we had been at sea.

It was sad to be leaving the raft behind

and the people.

But, it was good to be going home.

(waves crashing)

(crickets chirping)

(machine whirring)

(tape recorder clicking)

I would like to say that

I stayed with positive feelings about the raft.

Okay, I was angry about several things with Santiago,

but, after Acali,

I had the feeling I cannot continue

exactly my life as before.

-Mhm. -But,

when I came back to Israel,

it was this Yom Kippur,

the bad war of '73, October, yes,

and then everything was forgotten.

After this war, everything was forgotten.

Okay, and you Maria.

I came back to ordinary life.

I went on as a second mate

on ordinary merchant ships,

and hoped, of course,

that this experiment

shouldn't destroy my future career

in the merchant Navy.

I think Santiago's experiment was a huge success.

-Yes? -Yes, definitely.

-Oh really? -But,

I think he missed it,

because we could talk to each other with sophistication,

and depth, and understanding, and love,

and isn't that the answer to violence?

-Sure. -Mm.

I think it happened on the raft.

It was the opposite of violence.

It was true peace.

He was so focused on the violence,

and the conflict, and the, you know, and--

but he had it right in his hands.

Because all over the world, and all the conflicts,

it's always them and us.

And we started out them and us,

and we became us.

-Sure. -Mhm.

Right.

Yes.

♪

♪

(squeaking)

♪

♪

(laughing)

We have to do it again.

(indistinct chatter)

♪

♪

(static buzzing)

♪

♪