TRAILER

SYNOPSIS

Enduring Life is an intimate portrait of an elderly couple who lives in the same house in Utrecht, The Netherlands, for more then 45 years. Their son Rinus stayed with them all these years. He makes fresh orange juice every day.

The film shows the strict division of roles and how father, mother, and son live together. Their days are planned following specific routines. Outside of the house, their activities follow patterns that are also as tight as possible. All this offers them great comfort. The story takes an unexpected dramatic turn when the fourth son shows up.

DIRECTOR | PRODUCER | CAMERA | EDITING – Brechtje Boeke

FEATURES

Length            38 minutes
Year                 2008
Subtitles         English, Dutch
Image              Letterbox

DIRECTORS STATEMENT

Enduring Life was made within the Visual Ethnography specialization in the Cultural Anthropology bachelor at Leiden University. I was assigned to find a topic for my first documentary. In that time I visited a family at their home every week as a part-time day care job. I already visited this family for more then three years.

The formation of habits, patterns and relationships within the household intrigued me. They seemed inseparable from the things that shaped their daily lives. For me it was a totally different world. I observed how they were able to maintain and live their life in our society. This way I swapped the vacuum cleaner for the camera and documented their existence.

SCREENINGS

IDFA DocNext Mini. Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2012.

FotoDoCA. Utrecht, The Netherlands 2011.

Athens Ethnographic filmfestival. Athens, Greece 2011.

Tartu Worldfilm Festival. Tartu, Estonia 2009.

Days of Ethnographic Film. Ljubljana, Slovenia 2009.

Culturele Zondag Dagelijkse kost. Utrecht, The Netherlands 2009.

Beeld voor Beeld Festival. Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2009.

Festival of Visual Culture. Joensuu, Finland 2009.

Astra Film Festival. Sibiu, Romania 2009.

Platformavideo09 International Film Festival. Athens, Greece 2009.

An-Ver-WandLung. Ein kleines ethnologisches filmfestival. Leipzig, Germany 2009.

© 2008