Mene tekel

In the year 2000, half of all youths in Amsterdam will be of immigrant origins. The government wants to encourage integration and the 'melting pot' of cultures by for instance insisting that seventy percent of all new recruits in municipal jobs should be immigrants or women. Mene tekel shows the consequences of this policy for the Amsterdam Fire Brigade, without interviews, but through observing and using the style of a feature film. Sons from old fire-brigade families no longer automatically get a job. Immigrant youths however are almost forced to join by the good intentions of aid organisations. They are then put to the test and initiated: after all, as soon as the alarm goes, a possible confrontation with death threatens and firemen have to trust each other implicitly.