Go to content
Six personal portraits depict the Amsterdam Van Speijkstraat, with its 47 nationalities, in bird’s eye view. They can’t understand each other, but the images tell them each other’s stories.

A crane moves graciously above the Van Speijkstraat in Amsterdam. The bird’s eye view from the crane is the connecting element between the mini-portraits of six residents. 47 nationalities live on this street.
Fine artist Janou is fascinated by the hoisting cranes in her neighbourhood that she sees as sentinels. Fatou’s family in the Gambia does not believe people in Europe can be poor. All Africans keep up the myth to the home front that everybody is wealthy here. Arnold is told that the tree he used to climb is largely dead. Arnold himself limps, due to an illness. Mariamma comes home after the bank has claimed the house she slaved away for. Vera needs rest and likes to visit the graveyard. After her baby’s birth, Katarina is looking for a challenge, while her partner Sylvain dreams of becoming a coffee trader. In different ways, they all face an important decision.

Credits

Director
Producer
Sound editing
Production company
March21 AV
Distributor NL
March21 AV

Title: Liever de lucht in
Year: 2011
Duration : 1 hour, 7 minutes
Category: Long Documentary
Edition: NFF 2011

NFF Archive

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.

Stills

Still