The Flat Jungle

Colour, 16mm
The Netherlands, 1978, 90 min
Section: Johan van der Keuken

Synopsis

Waddenzee, the sea off the Wetlands coast, is a unique natural and landscape phenomenon. This is a coastal zone spreading out over the territories of Holland, Germany and Denmark which disappears under water and again reappears according to the regular movement of the tide. Johan van der Keuken took his camera to this “flat jungle” to film the fauna and flora and also its inhabitants. The life of the local people was considerably transformed by economic, technological and industrial development in the region. The director frequently varies his scale: scenes of the countryside are often alternated with shots of miniature marine organisms. And it is with these that the food-chain cycle begins – creatures living in mutual existence on the borders of the sea and dry land, whose essential natural environment has been invaded for good by ecological activists, holiday-makers, heavy industry and tanks from the training grounds.