De stem van het water

"Another film about water, haven't we seen enough of them?", the voice-over laments at the beginning of THE VOICE OF THE WATER. The film deliberately plays with clichés about water. A series of varied, often humoristic situations follows, with water as the connecting element. The highlights of this film are, among others: the small boy that does not dare to duck under water when schoolswimming, but turns out to be an excellent swimmer at the end of the film, the eel-fisherman who does not speak only about but also to the fish, the rising water tourism ("An own boat, that's what I call freedom"), two competing 'skûtsje'-sailors, and a rescue operation by the Wodan lifeboat in heavy storm. In the first place, this documentary is a film about people. We see them in very different, often humoristic situations, with water as only the thread. Typically Dutch activities and behaviour are shown with a wink at the spectator, and are subtly commentated on by Simon Carmiggelt.