Built in an Antwerp shipyard in 1960, the “Askoy II” , a polished elegant18-metre sailing boat first sailed around the Baltics and the Faroe Islands.
By 1974, Jacques Brel decides to leave the stage and go sailing around the world. Looking for the right boat, he finally falls in love with the “Askoy II” and on 24th July ’74, accompanied by his wife Maddy and daughter France, he sets sail for the Acores.
He starts writing one of last chansons. When reaching the Canary Islands, he falls gravely ill, undergoes lung surgery in Switzerland, but returns to the “AskoyII” to cross the Atlantic to French Antilles. He works once again on his songs.
Via the Panama Canal and across the Pacific, he reaches at last the place where he was to stay: in November 75 he drops anchor at Tao-Ku on the island of Hiva Oa and – too worn out to go on – he settles near Atuona. The “Askoy II” remains there until his death awaiting an inglorious future: after years of wandering around the Pacific, it finally falls victim to a terrible storm and is stranded on a beach in the North East of New Zealand… where it has remained to this very day.

AVAILABLE FOR SCREENING: French version only