Herman Slobbe

Black and white, 16mm
The Netherlands, 1966, 29 min
Section: Johan van der Keuken

Synopsis

When, in 1964, Van der Keuken was making his first film about blind children, one little boy stuck in his mind. Two years later the filmmaker went back to find him in order to make him the main subject of another documentary. Herman is on the threshold of puberty and is clear about his views on old age, intolerance and so-called normality. He has such a strong character that he has already succeeded in building his own internal world. Herman’s phenomenal ability to imitate sounds plays an important role in the film. The boy, who plans working as a radio technician when he grows up, becomes the film’s extraordinary reporter, an ear through which we understand the world in a new way. Undreamt-of questions and astonishment find their way to us through a microphone specially set up by Herman.