Polderpioniers

Flat, spacious fields, fringed with tawny trees. That is the landscape made and inhabited by the members of Flevo's Male-voice Choir. Archive footage shows how the polder was cultivated, alternated with memories of the pioneers of yesteryear. These are the elderly choir members of today. In the vast, desolate polder, the singing, but also and especially the interaction before and after the rehearsals appears to be invaluable for the social cohesion. This is why the moment a member gets a brooch pinned up for his forty-fifth jubilee is truly moving. And that is why everybody sympathises when it turns out the conductor has a life-threatening disease, but despite drastic treatments wants to keep conducting 'his' crew. A film that demonstrates that you can lay down prosaic land, but that it takes more to forge a community.