Norman Leto: Sailor

Overview

Whilst we would like to believe that Polish director, Norman Leto’s film Sailor is a piece of disfigured yet insightful imagination, the undeniable believability behind the work suggests that there is more fact to the story than fiction.

The story is broken into three lectures performed by the protagonist, played by Norman Leto himself. The lessons concentrate on a spectrum of neurological, philosophical and anthropological societal issues, with the first being titles The Brain of a Genius Vs. that of an Idiot: Morphological Differences in Anatomy. As you can probably assume, the content of the firm is not exactly light, and alongside these controversial lectures exists a loose plot line featuring the narrator’s disintegrating relationship and suffocating lack of self confidence. The film cleverly links the lesson plan with the protagonist’s life, as well as larger social issues, to pull three very distinct layers of societal pressure into a single underlying problem.

The entire story comes across as some sort of twisted tragic tale, regardless of the fact that the plot is tied to scientific discovery and statistical results. What is even more concerning, yet equal intriguing is the self-reflection that is evident in the film. It would seem that the plot is a representation of Norman Leto’s egotistical and misanthropic alter ego. Or even more disturbingly, perhaps just his inner self.