Film Review: Operation Namibia
by Marinell Haegelin

Martin Paret, Germany 2023

It’s said life is funnier than movies, and OPERATION NAMIBIA proves that point; it’s more like a cynical black comedy. Writer-director Martin Paret fashioned his intriguing, creatively constructed documentary from photographs and letters around events that took place between 1976-1979 and stretched across three continents.

In 1971 a team of idealists-cum-activists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, while brainstorming what to do about South Africa’s political apartheid, were incensed by the spree of book banning, e.g., Black Beauty, i.e., nothing Black is beautiful. Their plan for some vigorous nonviolent action is to round up as many of those banned books as possible, and then deluge the country with them! How? Send the books by ship! Taking it one step further, the boat would be manned by like-minded left-wing individuals ready for a revolution living in Amsterdam and London. Barry, a boat-wise Irishman, helps choose their initial boat—a photo is shown—that is amply evaluated by the skipper, “This is a piece of shit.” An understatement even to uninitiated sailors; another boat is found. Their destination is Namibia—an independent country since August 1969—still occupied by South Africa’s apartheid system. It’s mindboggling that they set off from Portsmouth, England, in an old fishing boat with an inexperienced, young crew and 6000 prohibited books believing they’ll arrive there in five months.

Instead, they’re in good spirits celebrating Christmas in Portugal. In Tenerife, Canary Islands, they steal a new mast; the Senegalese government provide hotel lodgings; Hans, the German pacifist from Amsterdam, keeps an inventory of the books; May Day! Their boat is on the rocks for nine days; they find an African crew member; their second Christmas isn’t so jolly; Barry hightails it back to Ireland; friction’s thick onboard by the third Christmas.

Relying on a paper trail of source material from Paret’s uncle who was a crew member on that fateful voyage, and some Super-8 film footage, the multi-talented director’s polyphonic film’s initial telephone conversations switch to hearing various activists’ correspondence being read accompanied by corresponding visuals. Shaping that crusade is Deborah Uhde and Paret’s dexterous editing, Christiane Büchner’s dramaturgy, Gerald Schauder’s astute sound design accompanied by Elisabeth Coudoux and Will Saunders’ music.

Uncle Hans Paret stays onboard alone another six months to send the books to Angola before bailing and returning home forty-two months after setting sail. The boat found a new home in South America as a seafood restaurant.