The Long Holiday

The alternation between personal and more reflective elements is characteristic of Van der Keuken’s films. At the beginning of DE GROTE VAKANTIE, we see how his doctor tells him that, due to cancer of the prostate, he does not have long to live. For the filmmaker, this notification is a stimulus to make a long trip. He visits meditating monks in Bhutan, he goes to the Sahel, where he puts village children in front of his camera one by one, and in Brazil he wanders around among the inhabitants of the slums. He combines these travel scenes with still lives of objects he has collected in the course of his life. In his poetic voice-over, he talks about himself and about life. At the end of the film, his hopes are revived, because a new medicine has been discovered. Van der Keuken will keep on filming until the end, ‘because as long as I can make an image, I’m alive.’