Society - The Real Castaway

The romanticism of life on a deserted island quickly gives way to a perilous fight for survival in The Real Castaway, a searing account of one couples battle against the elements on one of the most remote regions on the planet. For Martin Popplewell, it all started with The Blue Lagoon, the sun-drenched teenage fantasy film from 1980 starring Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields. Popplewell was just 15 years of age when he first viewed the film, and it burned in him an obsession. I was spellbound by the vision of two teenagers growing up and falling in love in a tropical paradise, Popplewell recalls in the documentary. The scenes in this film inspired me to find my own desert island and live there with my own Brooke Shields. At the age of 18, after nearly three years of preparation, Popplewell was ready to live his dream. His companion on this adventure would be the long-time object of his affections, Rachel. The setting would be a picturesque patch of lush foliage and piercing blue waters off the coastline of the Federated States of Micronesia. With starry-eyed enthusiasm, an unbreakable can-do spirit, and the woman of his dreams in tow, Popplewell was about to embark on an adventure he had only witnessed on the silver screen. The reality of their experiences were far removed from the fantasy of Hollywood creation. The couple were met with harsh tropical storms, exposure to dangerous sea life, precarious food shortages, and severe bouts of life-threatening illness. The Real Castaway places the viewer in the thick of these struggles, courtesy of the daily video diary they maintained during their time on the island. Intercut with this wealth of survival footage is a touching homecoming of sorts, as Popplewell and Rachel return to the island 12 years later to reflect on their adventure through the benefit of hindsight. They tested the limits of their endurance, built their own home from the humble resources of their environment, and developed an unwavering bond with the Earth and each other. But they also grew weary from the isolation of their surroundings, suffered from malnourishment, and occasionally felt themselves teetering on the edge of insanity. In short, as the film shows with a surprisingly bittersweet reverence, they experienced the totality of an existence on the fringes, and never felt more alive in doing so.