The Last Whalers of São Miguel

"Oh, man! Admire and model thyself after the whale!" says Herman Melville in Moby Dick. The world-famous writer Melville once participated in a whale hunting party in New Bedford, USA. Inspired after reading Moby Dick, filmmaker Annette van Trigt decided to pay a visit to the Azores herself. São Miguel is one of 9 islands, and these days there are no reminders left of the cruel hunt for sperm whales of the past. This is to the great grief of the two last living whalers, who have lost all their cultural heritage due to poor island management. Against this background, the hunters describe how they were motivated by poverty to face some very dangerous battles at sea, which in turn resulted in unconditional camaraderie. A photo from the archives of one of the hunters led to a special discovery...