De laatste eer

According to the Bill on the Disposal of the Dead, the council in the city where someone passes away takes care of the funeral, if that person does no longer have any (contact with) relatives. Director Appel films in The Hague, where three officials of the Special Assistance Department take care of three deceased persons in 2005. With the civil servants, Appel enters the bare, but tidy apartment of T. Molier (1943). They find a bank statement, which proves his financing has been settled, and music they can play at the memorial service. Four of his former colleagues can be located who eventually attend the funeral. But at the interment of W. de Bont (1962), former employee of a bike shed (Appel shows him on footage of a surveillance camera), fifty odd people turn up. Among them, not only customers of the shed, but also his ex-girlfriend and two daughters, with whom he had lost contact. Appel interviews them about missed opportunities (`If I'd known, then... but well'), and talks to two sons (half-brothers) of E. Landman (1939), who had indeed sought contact with him, but in vain.