De geestelijke verovering van de wereld

The book The Islands by Albert Alberts motivated Jan Willem van Dam to look up his Dutch teacher secondary school, Father G.C.M. Pijnenborg. When they meet again, the film-maker soon gives up his initial idea of finding out what he was like as a schoolboy from this man who has had such an influence on him, because the teacher turns out to remember his brother better. So, in the words of the film-maker, they start ‘loathing the past and making a film.’That film comprises images of dark landscapes, reminiscent of some Russian films, tranquil pictures of the refectory in the Jesuit monastery where the former teacher lives, but also acted scenes. Van Dam seems to be looking for an attitude to life and shows en passant the forgotten, hidden ‘tone’ of an apparently lost Holland.The film-maker directed his documentary with a quote from Nietzsche in mind: `In the ascetic ideal, so many bridges to independence are indicated, that a philosopher cannot listen without inner jubilation or applause to the story of all those resolute individuals who once said no to all the lack of freedom and headed into some desert. Even when they were only strong donkeys and the complete opposite of the strong spirit.’