Op een Platte Aarde (working title)
This film by Monique Verhoeckx is about the absurdity of a war. It tells the story of a father and his son, inspired by the lives of the director's father and grandfather. During World War II Verhoeckx' grandfather was forced to work on the Thailand-Burma railway. In 1955 he died in the Netherlands due to the impact of this experience. In the film Verhoeckx' grandfather (SENIOR) -played by an actor- lives on after his death as a guard. Through his screens he watches and gets confronted with the images of his past. He starts to reflect upon the way his son (JUNIOR) -played by Verhoeckx's own father- has coped with reality.
The film wants to call attention to the post-war twilight zone with hidden trauma's where many war-victims are living in. Their perceptions are often characterized by denial, emotional isolation and the blurring of boundaries between the present and the past. De survivors try to function as good as possible in the outside world, while carrying a big secret within them. They find themselves in limbo, captured in their own war-memories, silently tormented by anger and indescribable emotions. Parallel to these perceptions a fictional universe is being invoked. Imagine that you are seeing what nobody else sees and that you have to deny reality to be able to live with it. This film is about this kind of loneliness. Like being convinced that the earth is flat. The anti-science as a metaphor. How lonely can denial be?
Directing: Monique Verhoeckx
Camera: Gregor Meerman
Sound: Erik Langhout
Producer: Doc.Eye Film