Aleksandr Petrov: The Old Man and the Sea (1999)

(http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=old-man--sea-vocabulary)

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky.
(Salao is the word used in Mexico and the Caribbean region to name someone who is victim of a curse - Persona que es víctima de un maleficio).

So starts Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. You have the full text at http://www.classic-enotes.com/american-literature/american-novel/ernest-hemingway/the-old-man-and-the-sea/full-text-of-the-old-man-and-the-sea-by-ernest-hemingway/.

An old fisherman (everything about him was old except his eyes), once again challenged by fate: facing the giant fish, facing his own frailty. Long time ago he had been a foolhardy sailor, facing the Atlantic, facing the African coast. The memory of those times lasted only in his dreams, populated with lions and elephants.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/Oldmansea_petrov.jpg)

Now the old man starts again the fight. It is a fight of equals (he is my brother, but I must kill him and keep strong to do it). The giant marlin comes in his imagination as a brother, the same with the lions and elephants of Africa, populating his dreams. And he has to kill the marlin, the noble brother, or to be killed. There is no place for both.

Also his frailty, his lack of confidence, his lack of strength are his brothers. Because he is so old. And he has to kill them, his brothers, or to be killed.

And all these noble brothers, the marlin and his weaknesses, belong to nature. The old man is fighting brother nature: he must kill it, or to be killed.

(http://www.80srockphotos.com/fcWebApp/western-art.php)

Aleksandr Petrov worked two years and a half to paint more than 29,000 glass plates, each one four times larger than the usual A4-size. The images were finally shot with an IMAX camera.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea.jpg)

The result is a masterpiece. It's difficult, if not impossible, to describe it in words. Hemingway's is a masterpiece of words, difficult to put it in images. Petrov's is a masterpiece of images, difficult to put it in words.

I found on the web a superb comment:

Petrov must have battled to create this just like the old man.

(http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=13758&page=1)

The Old Man and the Sea: part 1/2
(video by dgroza)

The Old Man and the Sea: part 2/2
(video by dgroza)

(Aleksandr Petrov)

(Hemingway)