At 60 Km/h

The Citroen Méhari is a lightweight all-terrain vehicle: 600 cc, two-cylinder and 28 HP, with a maximum speed of 60 kilometers (37 miles) per hour. Divorced and lonely, a Uruguayan named Mario Sabah decided to realize a longtime dream for his 50th birthday and tour the world in this car. So he quit his job and fixed up the blue Méhari that once served as the family wagon. Together with a camera and his two sons, he then embarked on a 150,000-kilometer (93,000-mile) journey across 45 countries and five continents. Once on the road, it doesn’t take long for tensions to mount. After a clash of personalities halfway through Latin America, Mario continues alone, all the way to Canada. Sometimes he drives 600 kilometers at a stretch without even realizing it. “Do not ask me what happened in the middle, because I cannot tell.” Once he is way up north, he puts the Méhari on the boat to Spain, and from there he travels through Europe, Asia and even Australia, defying heat, rain, dirt and all forms of chaos along the way – with plenty of stamina, far too little money and at a speed that’s crucial to the story. In the words of his son Mattias, “At 60 kilometers per hour, you’re like a chameleon. You go slowly, transforming along with the landscape you’re going through.”