Vieren maar!

A boy and his dog are loafing about the wharf of IJmuiden harbour, where freshly-caught fish is being sold in the auction hall. Meanwhile, the fishermen are preparing their trawlers for their next trip to the fishing grounds near Iceland and the Barentsz Sea. Blocks of ice are being put on board, machines are doing a trial run, crews are going aboard, the fleet is putting out to sea. In thought, the boy sails with them. He imagines life on board: locating the fish, putting out and hauling in the nets. They make a meagre catch. On their way to new fishing grounds a heavy storm breaks. The seawater washes over the pitching trawler. Still, the nets are paid out. The fishermen's work is hard and dangerous. By exactly attuning the montage of the sound and image to each other and thus composing an often abstract interplay of rhythm and movement, Herman van der Horst has succeeded to produce an unusual film on a subject that had almost become a cliché in documentary film. Among the most successful sequences of PAY OUT! are the fish auction and the storm on the high seas.