Voorland
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Looward lies on the banks of the Nederrijn. When the river rises, it invades the surrounding land, fields and bike paths. As the season passes, the waters recede, the road signs are put back and the cows return to pasture: Looward is land once again, at least for as long as the river allows. For seven years, Albert Elings and Eugenie Jansen observed and filmed the river’s rise and fall. The result is seven poetic chapters in which the real narrator is the countryside. A brick factory next to Roman ruins is dismantled; workers dig a tunnel... It took time, but progress has come to Looward, although it seems human activities play only a marginal role in this incomparably beautiful Dutch countryside.
Lying on a grassy riverbank, overcome by summertime laziness. Watching the sun’s bright rays reflected in the slow-moving flow of water. The distant sound of motorboats mingles with the buzzing of insects around us. In this countryside of dikes and water, time runs differently. The cows ruminate to the beat of the wind against the grass, while the water flow, imperturbably, as it has done since the beginning. But in these watery prairies everything is transient by definition, set in a world apart. People, animals and buildings appear differently; it is from this perspective that one gains a sense of the flow of time.
Ecosystems
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