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On 15 October 1998, filmmaker Johan van der Keuken heard the ominous news that he only had a few years to live as a result of prostate cancer. All that was left was to make some wonderful journeys with his wife and colleague Noshka van der Lely. They left for Nepal, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Brazil and the United States. With his film camera and a small digital camera, Van der Keuken observed and recorded the transient nature of life in various cultures. In a kind of road-air-movie he filmed from his own perspective virtually everything: the movements by plane and car, encounters with Buddhist lamas, a Tibetan doctor, his view from a hangglider above Rio de Janeiro. The film takes an unexpected turn when a new medicine is found in New York that turns out to be effective in treating Van der Keuken. Eventually he died in 2001.

Credits

Producer
Muziek
Production company
Pieter van Huystee Film & TV
TV company
VPRO TV
Distributor NL
Public Film

Title: De grote vakantie
Year: 2000
Duration : 2 hours, 25 minutes
Category: Long Documentary
Edition: NFF 2000

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You are now in the NFF Archive. The archive contains contains information on film, TV and interactive productions that were screened at past festival editions. The NFF does not dispose of this material. For this, please contact the producer, distributor or broadcaster. Sometimes, older films can also be found at the Eye Film Museum or the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.