Passage - A Boatmovie

takes us on a trip by cargo boat to the south of France. The voyage starts in Amsterdam, where a péniche barge is loaded on a summer’s day. We then hitch along with various Dutch ships and the crews who live on them, passing through ports, cities, industrial areas and beautiful natural landscapes. And then there are all the different locks: narrow, wide, tall, low – from old-fashioned, manually operated locks to an ultra-modern ship lift. Filmed with a great deal of love and eye for detail, the route to the south is presented through an interplay between three screens, which almost never show the same thing at once. Time and space on the screens remain constant, but the perspective is constantly changing. The soundtrack also contributes to this playful form when the ship’s engine suddenly creates a rhythm. The one thing that is constant is change.