Het oog boven de put

With the gaze of a fascinated and trained onlooker Johan van der Keuken has produced a series of portraits of everyday life in the Indian state of Kerala, in which tradition and culture play a major role.
In the countryside we come across several people along the round of a type of mobile investment banker who, while taking a walk, collects money from the people to subsequently put it out and thus earn some interest in everybody's favour. In particular, it is the financial-economical situation of the hard- working simple labourer which comes to the fore in this episode.
In the city we attend class-situations in which the merits and skills of traditional arts of war, of the Indian dance, of temple rituals, and of centuries old theater are handed down from master to pupil. Against the background of the humming and hurried city-life young people dedicate themselves with great concentration to the higher cultural heritage of their country.
If the images often have a great beauty and strike us because of their non- Western aspect, the director primarily leaves space and time to the reality he finds itself to exhibit itself to us in its everyday quality.