The loose ends with which the NOS had left me a bit on Monday after the livebroadcast of the funeral of the British Queen were tied together quitesatisfactorily at Khalid & Sophie. There was Suse van Kleef, former UnitedKingdom correspondent for the NOS; Simon Smits, former ambassador to Londonand yes, a theologian. Someone had to be able to say something about what theQueen’s deeply religious belief had been in. Joost Röselaers is pastor, now ofVrijburg in Amsterdam, until 2017 at the Dutch Church in London. He had“enjoyed” the service.
Also read: If you wanted to understand the Queen ‘s funeral, you had togoogle a lot
Insightful was his observation alone that the service, from biblical texts topsalms, not about the long life of the queen, but from beginning to endabout the afterlife. Former court and television director Rudolf Spoor toldabout the technically clever registration of the bagpiper, who first playedinto the church, turned around, and then walked out of the church in front ofthe coffin. “To the light”, Suse van Kleef saw. “To God” was what the preacherobserved.
After that, in Slava Ukraine , a look at the pale faces of the people whohave been away from home for weeks. In the first episode of Monday evening weare introduced to the refugees, but also to those who receive them. The familyfrom Urk that has taken in a family with three children, including theirfifteen poodles. Now their household consists of nine men and 33 dogs. Thelady of the house summarizes how coexistence works. “They can’t wash thedishes,” and “they’re raising them very differently.” It is clearly not easy,and cannot be sustained for more than ‘two or three years’. But they do.
Carol from Zoetermeer offers shelter to Valeria and her daughter. Mothers withchildren are cared for in Bloemendaal, in a social housing project withresident caretakers. Housemistress Franka, in one of the first house meetings,lists the “challenges” of a living group—power, money, sex and cleaning. Shemeans: if there is a fight, then about this. Living there voluntarily seems tome to be quite a challenge. In half a year we will see in the second part of_Slava Ukraine_ how these lives go.
love for the car
In The DS Keyzer we see the dismantling of David Kostelijk’s garage. Fortyyears ago he came to the Amsterdam building as a squatter and started arecovery center for Citroëns. The garage is no longer in operation whenfilmmaker Doret van der Sloot comes to film there, she is capturing thefragments of what once was. Love for the car and tinkering with it. Love forthe people who worked there. Love for and from the customer who brought hiscar there. Nostalgia, but for something that we as viewers have not known. Wehave to make do with the parts that are handed to us, but as we glue themtogether, the image turns a quarter turn.
David Kostelijk, originally a nurse, has something fatherly and absent-minded.His former employee speaks of him warmly. Everything was possible, everythingwas allowed and nothing was too crazy. Meanwhile, forty years worth of parts,tools and engine oil are dug out of the garage. As a viewer, you soon findyourself in the atmosphere of a community center, a “crazy little company”where anyone with a blemish could dock. But that seems too romantic. Precious,it also says itself: “My work is professional, the presentation amateurish.”We hear him say something about all the money that went over his dismantleddesk. And at the end of the film, he sighs that he regrets selling it. “Thenyou have a few million. But what good is that to you?”