Rutger Kopland: de taal van het verlangen

'We've been busy transplanting the appendix for quite a while now', Rudi van den Hoofdakker jokes, better known as the poet Rutger Kopland, in a northern accent. He likes to give absurdist lectures. This cabaret side of him is unknown to the general public, as are the many short films he made, or his large collection of postcards, with which he can indulge his fantasy. The occasion for this documentary was his silver jubilee in 2006. The film looks back at the conception of his most popular poem, Jonge sla, which it turns out he has written in just a few minutes. He reluctantly recites it time and again. During the making of this film, Kopland got involved in a car accident due to cardiac arrest, after which he was at death's door for weeks. Later, he was admitted to the same closed psychiatric ward he used to be the head of. The idea that he was nearly gone without having noticed frightens him. But he does not have a penchant for higher things or something after his earthly existence. 'I don't have to go anywhere after this.'