Breskens - Ate de Jong

(in the framework of POEMS FROM THE SEA)

Year:
2005
Length:
7 minutes

Tagline:
Personal inquiry into the past inspired by a poem by Kees Ouwens.

Logline:
The poem Do we settle for Breskens by Kees Ouwens evokes a variety of nostalgic feelings for Ate de Jong. His teenage daughter Lois however reacts in a very different way.

Poem:
Do we settle for Breskens

do we settle for Breskens?
then amicably

need it be, arm to the sea/needy
by the sea/in need of sea?

lest you elucidate your whirling
I mistake myself for you

in reverse there is radiance, no hint
what is keeping you beyond my liking?

It is not your billowing, nor my looking away
even
before I died, the ferry sailed, previously
I bent forward to trout, muddy water
in an inland barge, there the keel was
missing, replaced a net that

you bequeath me? My view, blinding, you share? how
threefold it is: that I am nature, that
I can know it, that it is no good, the day,

advanced to mid year, a river scheldt
speaking in tongues, in my eyes
that grant me the light
but turn away
in the here and now
toward eight,

when I couldn’t bear to see
what was shining there in the roads
and so
lovely it was out of our reach

Kees Ouwens
translation: Peter Verstegen / Martin Cleaver

Cast:
with: Lois de Jong

Crew:
script & direction: Ate de Jong
camera: Paul van den Bos, Mea Dols
editing: Jan Ketelaars
sound design: Paul Gies, Jan Ketelaars
re-recording mix: Paul Gies / Klink
producer: Digna Sinke

this film is financially supported by:
Provincie Zeeland
VSB Fonds
ThuisKopie Fonds