Albert Elings

People who create explore, and get to know themselves and others better. In this cinematographic essay, Rolf Orthel looks for the meaning of creating, with reality or the memory of it as a starting point and a train journey as a meandering ribbon through the film. We see the first musical steps of primary school children and youngsters at Jeugdtheaterschool Zuid-Oost. We see what talent does to you when a conservatory student practices for his graduation, when someone paints a remarkable self-portrait or when Konvooi creates a thrilling play. This is high-level creation which makes you wonder how on earth it is possible that you can suddenly be enchanted and moved. The conclusion of Orthel’s search? Creating things is the best.

How do you deal with the fact that someone close to heart has suddenly disappeared without a trace? Can you go on living whilst waiting for his return?

The landscape in which we live has been around longer than we have. And it will still be there after our death. Not that the landscape always remains the same: every generation wipes out the traces of previous generations, and itself leaves new traces behind. This process has been followed for seven years with great detail, craftsmanship and without misplaced nostalgia on Super16 by Eugenie Jansen and Albert Elings. On the banks of the Netherrhine River, between the dike and the river itself, is a stretch of water meadow, Loowaard. In the derelict farmstead lives the last farmer who had cows here, there are remains of a brick factory that no longer has a function, and in the ground, remains have been found of an old Roman encampment. Until recently, the march of progress apparently had left this piece of land untouched. But now the meadows have to make way for the development of new nature.

Teenager Kristopher feels relieved about his coming-out, which as yet seems to bring him more advantages than disadvantages.

Winner of multiple international awards, hilarious and grotesque, inventive and imaginative, this truly unique and extraordinary Dutch film by Eugenie Jansen and Albert Elings is nothing less than a brilliant comment on human nature. It portrays the relationship between people and birds. Hoarse from shouting, tired from running, man eventually thought that the invention of the scarecrow would demonstrate his domination over birds. But the scare soon turned sour and the rag doll became little more than a symbol of the battle between man and bird. Geese in the meadow, sparrows in a glass house, pigeons in the city, starlings on an airport runway - the birds are everywhere. This grotesque story of too many birds and too many people competing for space and resources in a small country makes for a brilliant and very funny film.