Freek de Jonge 80 jaar: Het kistje

Programme

• Clips and short films from the Eye collection

  Chosen by Freek de Jonge.

• Die ene (Silvester Zwaneveld, NL 2022)

  An animated film by Silvester Zwaneveld based on the story De spin uit de mythe (The Spider from the Myth, 1983) from Freek de Jonge’s 1983 theatre show De Mythe (The Myth). This short film about a spider who starts a family in a vacuum cleaner bag picked up several awards, including in Florence, Milan and Paris. De Jonge voiced this animated film himself.

• Het kistje (Silvester Zwaneveld, NL 2024)

  An animated film based on the story with which Freek de Jonge closed his first Oudejaarsconference (New Year’s Eve Show) in 1982. The film is about a boy, Prana, who is given a box containing a secret by old woodcutter Knoert. Prana doesn’t want the key, as he wants to preserve the secret. As long as he doesn’t know what’s in the box, he can fantasize about its contents and meditate on life. But everyone around him wants to find out his secret: the baker, Rasa the girl next door, the priest, and finally even the king.
  
  But Prana still refuses to open the box. The country gets into a crisis, and the contents of the box could be a solution to all their problems. The army surrounds Prana’s house, and the commander opens the box. It’s empty. Where until now Prana had the world at his feet, now he has nothing.
  
  Everything is nothing, he concludes: that’s the secret. Prana marries Rasa and a year later they have a son, Naprana. When he turns 10, he’s allowed to look in the box. His parents don’t want to keep any secrets from their son. At the bottom of the box is a note with a poem that Prana put there when his son was born.
  
  Everything’s been done.
  Nothing helps.
  Do nothing.
  Everything leads to strife.
  Peace is nowhere.
  Be nowhere.
  Everyone is dissatisfied.
  No one is happy.