The New Ice Age

Colour, 16mm
The Netherlands, 1974, 80 min
Section: Johan van der Keuken

Synopsis

The final part of a documentary triptych describing the relationship between the North and the South, focusing again particularly on the theme of wealth and poverty. The film oscillates between a large family from northern Holland and the living conditions of the inhabitants of Peru in South America. Both environments are seen as the products of social, economic and historical influences. Young Dutch girls – three sisters – carry out their monotonous work on an ice-cream factory assembly line. They are further isolated from other people for their defective hearing. The life of poor Peruvians is determined by former colonialism, devastated natural resources and resettlement from the mountains to the cheerless slums outside the capital; even so, they still endeavour to improve their conditions by applying methods of socialist autonomy.