Dichter bij de zee

A modest and loving portrait of a small enclave of old-fashioned beach huts by the North Sea. The sound track is fragments of conversations with the inhabitants, who themselves are not seen on screen; the protagonists on screen are the huts, the beach and the sea. And, only a stone’s throw away, the heavy industry of the Hoogovens furnaces.

Dichter bij de zee/Nearer the Sea was made at the end of the summer season, when the huts are taken down for the winter; but the way in which this has been filmed with melancholy lighting and pictorial framing points to less temporary decay. The huts form the set for a season which is long gone. Or, in the words of the makers: “Changes in the landscape, the transitory nature and reminiscences of the summer form the basis for this short film.”