Sleeping Rough

Colour, 35mm
The Netherlands, 2002, 84 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

Jakob is an eighty-year-old widower whose moodiness is tolerated only by his old friend Koos. Disillusioned with life, he spends his days in solitude. Majok is a young Sudanese illegal immigrant, who only feels at ease among the cows grazing in the vast open plain of the Dutch polder. Despite their differences, the headstrong young black man and the intractable old war veteran come to recognise themselves in each other. Both of them are burdened by their past. Jakob has never managed to overcome his wife’s death, nor did he come to terms with his war experiences in the Dutch East Indies. Majok’s burden is “the forgotten war” in his fatherland and the homesickness he feels for his birthplace and the people he had to leave behind. This is a story about an unusual encounter. The winner of the Rotterdam Film Festival 2002 (together with the Czech film Wild Bees by Bohdan Sláma and Everyday God Kisses Us on the Mouth by Sinisa Dragin).

About the director

Eugenie Jansen (1965) graduated in 1991 from the NFTVA. She worked as an assistant director and made a name for herself as a documentary maker. Sleeping Rough is her feature debut.