Longstay

The long-stay ward is the final stop after a prison sentence and psychiatric treatment. When a judge considers someone too dangerous to be released into society, the convict spends his final years here. The longstay is really for life. For nine months, the filmmakers followed the inmates and staff of the Pompestichting, a so-called TBS clinic in Zeeland. The residents are subtly introduced. Willem, who is imprisoned since 1974 for a sex murder and does not want to leave anymore, Frank, who only sees potential victims through the bars, and Rudy, who thinks he is cured, but whose detention the judge extends by two years. Meanwhile, someone gets a tattoo, another makes a house call and the staff discuss the degree of privacy for Frank and his husband Dolf and the calling in of 'care prostitutes' to satisfy the inmates' sexual needs. After the arrangements for the documentary had been concluded, the government imposed a ban to film or photograph any people in involuntary commitment. This makes Longstay a unique document.