Rocco Bellich got a call from his mother-in-law just 20 years ago. And he never forgets it. The Royal Coast Guard received the SOS signal in the Atlantic Ocean 230 miles west of Ireland.

About four and a half months and 3,000 miles after leaving Cape Cod on a closed 21-foot rowboat, Berwick’s father, retired cardiologist Nena Doberick, died at sea.

Brother Berwick had already experienced a storm even after embarking on a solo trip to Europe.

“I thought, ‘He’s probably fine,’ Loco Bellich remembers.

A month later, it was discovered that the boat, The LÅ«n (“Moon”), had capsized by a fisherman. There is no trace of Nena Doberic or her personal belongings.

“I definitely knew it was over,” Loco said. “There was never a moment when I was convinced of his death, but over the months, I felt better.”

Nenad Berwick’s body has not been found. He was 62 years old.

Over the past 20 years the ship has dropped anchor in Pacifica, Loco has married, has two children, and is a documentary sequel to the 1999 Oscar nominated film “Genghis Blues” by him and his brother Adrian. I continued to produce and direct. Produced while they were residents of Vallejo.

After moving to Southern California, “Beyond the Call” was announced in 2006. “Happy” was partially filmed in Benicia in 2007. “Trust Me” in 2012. “Paradise” in 2020.

Movies came and went. And so for years. When he first tested his sailing skills on a family trip to Croatia, Loco turned 50 knowing how old his father was.

In addition to Nenado Berwick, the boat – the central figure – is featured in the story. He stayed on a friend’s pier from Pacifica. Loco wanted to see him, touch him, close his eyes and take his father’s position.

There had to be a movie there. was A movie there. It is not a documentary. An honest feature film.

Berwick had a script. He found a producer and an actor. And last week, he hiked six hours to Pacifica, picked up the ride, tied it to a trailer, and drove it back to the movie star.

The boat was sitting outside, all varnish warned, and the wood was rotten, Loco said. But it was his father’s boat.

“It’s a mixture of excitement… to rediscover memories and emotions… and also sadness because I know that’s where my father died,” Berwick said over the phone.

Still, there is something wrong with it. Berwick can’t bring his father back, but “I think part of the excitement is reviving and refurbishing the boat and putting it back on the water.”

Berwick has yet to hire a believable soul to refurbish Run for the Movie after his name.

“We’re in the early stages of making a movie,” he said. “Until a few months ago, I did not want to do this project”, he assured “several producers, actors and partial financing”.

Nenad Velika was born in Serbia and spent most of her youth in Croatia. He came to the United States for his stint as a cardiologist, but his parents’ history of seafaring merchant ships has never been lost. It was Loco’s grandfather who was convinced that Nenad would be better off on the path to medicine and later pursuing his travel interests.

On a family trip to Croatia, then 50, Nenad decided to row a boat about 35 miles around the island, leave at 2 a.m. and return the next day.

“People said he was crazy when he did it, but he was encouraged by the experience,” Loco said.

It took 12 years to complete a thoughtful solo trip to Europe, but on May 11, 2001, Nena Doberick embarked on an ill-fated mission from Chatham Harbor on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Loco’s mother-in-law was “surprised” and his sister-in-law “thought he was reckless,” Loco said. He and his brother arrived from California for Bon Voyage.

Nenad was the oldest person to attempt a difficult solo trip, and he was suspicious, Loco said.

“I said to my dad, ‘Everyone was stressed out about this. What if you don’t? And he said, “I’ll make it.” He knew there was a risk. He said, “We all take risks every day. Again, I said, “What if you don’t do this? And he said, “What’s the way to more glory?”

A month has passed. Then a few, three, four. Loco and his father spoke to each other on the satellite phone every two weeks.

“Whether he was exhausted by a small storm or enjoying the sunset, he was absolutely delighted every time I spoke to him,” Loco said. “He couldn’t control the excitement of those 360-degree sunsets reflecting off the surface of the water and the appearance of a star in the middle of the ocean at night, expressing the sensation of floating in the water. ‘space. “

The Nenads often escorted sea turtles, visited by dolphins, whales and hammerhead sharks.

“I have never heard of him so happy in his life and he was a very happy man,” Loco said.

It’s not that Nenad never thought about his death. As the head of the cardiology department at a Chicago hospital, Berwick’s father was very familiar with death.

“He took off his handcuffs and once said, ‘You don’t want to die in a hospital bed.’ He survived, lived his trip and had every intention of going to Europe, ”said Roko. “I think there is something beautiful about the fact that he has never experienced aging, illness or the suffering of illness. He’s 62 years old and sort of in his physical prime. He was as sick as he could get. “

Nenad believed he was “going back and forth between stormy seasons.” He thought the main threat was to be attacked by a cargo ship, ”said Roko.

An unexpected whim delayed his process and put him in the middle of a storm.

“The wrong place and the wrong time,” Loco said, always thanking the Royal Coast Guard for “sending these heroic people in a helicopter at midnight”.

I found a flashing beacon, but nothing else. Only a few days after arriving ashore, Nenad Berwick disappeared. The storm he thought he could handle ended up beating him down.

“It was a fateful decision,” Loco lamented.

“For the first time, I understood what the story was,” he said, for the first time when Loco started writing “Lun”. “It took me 20 years to figure it out.

The pending film “probably starts with him at sea and ends with him at sea,” Loco said.

“If I could give the audience a little bit of what my dad went through and what he did there, I would have done something with this movie,” Loco said.

Belic’s 12 minute TED Talk “From Father to Father” is https://www.youtube.com/watch? You can see this at v = GKKmCdXZ4zA.