Old Joy

Mark has a house, a job and a pregnant wife. His old friend Kurt, who lives a free and easy life, calls to ask whether Mark feels like spending a weekend walking in the mountains. These thirty-somethings have seen less and less of each other in recent years – that’s just how it goes. As far as Mark is concerned, it’s a welcome outing, briefly being without any responsibilities. For Kurt, it is one of his many carefree adventures.

Old Joy shows their road trip to the Cascade Mountains to the east of Portland, Oregon, the long walk to a spring in a primeval forest and the way back. Using few words, the old mates try to understand and justify one another and their respective ways of life. But the gap between them seems too big for a nostalgic return to the old joy they once shared together. The film is based on a novel by Jonathan Raymond from Portland, Oregon. Landscape plays an important role in this painstaking and rather meditative film, and the subject is dealt with particularly in the beautiful silences. Composed and moving.

Winner VPRO Tiger Awards, IFFR 2006.