CM 2021

Netherlands Film Fund

Creative Europe - MEDIA

Art of Impact

Jacob's Way

Jacobsweg

Pitch video

Goals at CineMart&nbsp; We would like to find a Belgian co-producer to set up a creative collaboration, as a part of the film needs to be shot in Belgium. We would also like to find a sales agent to work on marketing materials and festival strategy.Synopsis Jacob, 60, embarks on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with his dog. After a risky climb in the rain where he almost loses his dog, he gets into the car of a young man to recover. He wakes up on a gated estate, where he finds he is unable to leave, forced to stay by a strange family who says he is sick. This distresses Jacob but at least he has found his dog who seems to have made friends with an angry boy messing around in the garden. As time goes on, Jacob seems to lose control of what&rsquo;s going on around him. From his perspective, we look at how he sees this oppressive world; what on earth do these people want from him? One day, he is taken to the supermarket by a family member and tries to escape. Jacob rolls into the verge and feels the freedom before it turns black... and he regains consciousness in the family&rsquo;s house. As viewers, we will gradually discover that the family really is his own and that he has a form of dementia. Things continue to become more blurred and confusing, culminating when Jacob overhears a discussion about a euthanasia declaration. Convinced the people in the family are trying to get him killed, he escapes again. But the outside world is just as surreal, before long he has fallen again, this time deep into the water. He is saved by his eldest son, who he realises is the angry boy from the garden. Time has melted and merged into a nonlinear experience. We switch between Jacob&rsquo;s world and his family&rsquo;s. Jacob is sad and passive, but, from a neutral perspective, we see how happy Jacob is with adult children around him. Jacob allows himself to be tucked into bed by his wife. The next morning Jacob is out walking. We recognise the beginning of the film, but now we understand so much more. The shadowy appearances are Jacob&rsquo;s own family members who walk behind him, even though he himself does not realise this. But it doesn&rsquo;t matter to them; if Jacob wants to walk, they will go with him... even if it is to Santiago.Director's Biography Eelko Ferwerda (Willem de Kooning Academy, cum laude) is a director of films and commercials. His works contain different styles and techniques and are always concept-driven, visually strong and, some of them, award-winning. After years of designing and producing video stages for theatre, Eelko&rsquo;s debut short film American Dreams (2006) won the Hollywood Discovery Award at the Hollywood Film Festival (Hollywood, CA). His ultra-short Born and Raised (2010) was selected for over sixty film festivals all over the world including the main competition at Clermont-Ferrand and received 6 awards. In 2012 he co-wrote and directed the worldwide internet hoax Human Birdwings. In 2015 he directed the critically acclaimed 3D VR experience for Terre des Hommes Amani, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival and in 2020 he depicted and animated the publication "Descartes Was Here; In Search of the Origin of Cartesian Space" by C.P.G Driessen and Rem Koolhaas for his exposition "The Countryside" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

BIND

After his dog almost died on his way to Santiago de Compostella, Jacob Splinter, a sporting senior, accepts the invitation of a man to take a break in his holiday home. When Jacob wants to resume his journey, the seemingly hospitable family has no intention of letting him go. Jacob’s Way is a viewer’s quest through Jacob’s head, past and the present are indistinguishable.