Luc Drion, rest in peace my friend

Luc had become a friend, a brother, naturally and simply throughout the paths we explored together. Time flew by : Himalaya, Winged Migration, Oceans, and lately, Les Saisons, a new project by both Great Jacques that we were fervently working on. We are distraught, we shall all miss Luc, and my thoughts especially go out to his team from the skiff on Oceans : they spent so many hours waiting together under the blazing sun off of the coast staring at Luc out of the corner of their eyes, just sitting there wordless with his philosophy book, wondering “should we wait ? should we go back to port ?” even though they knew deep inside that so long as the sun hadn’t set, Luc would never go back…

A fellow adventurer, we would also relax together to discuss our families, the passage of time, our children growing up, etc. It was touching how much he cared about little Manon. And then his words, movies, books, Le Canard Enchaîné, Belgium, Hal-Vivorde, cigarettes and Stella Artois, but only if there wasn’t any Jupiler !
Luc, powerful, malcontent, generous in friendship, demanding in return, human, anarchist, entertainer, you had a wonderful spirit, the spirit of the lens and the spirit enabling you to see far… Luc, I thought you had become immortal through affronting the storms…
Luc, LoK, Luko, today we humbly walk alongside you, our brother highwayman. The end of the road is always sad, this train station of the last departure is so sad ! Rest in peace, my friend.

Olli Barbé is the executive producer and production manager of Galatée Films.
(Translated from French by Alex Raiffe)