SLEEPING ROUGH

SLEEPING ROUGH portrays the encounter of two people burdened by their past: Majok, a Sudanese illegal immigrant and Jakob, a reclusive veteran of the Dutch East Indian war in Indonesia and a crabby old colonialist to boot. Majok occasionally stays with his fellow countrymen in a local center for asylum seekers, but he only feels at ease among the cows grazing in the broad Dutch pastures. He prefers to sleep outside, choosing a bench outside Jakob's house. Jakob is an 80-year-old widower, a crank whose moodiness is tolerated only by his Army pal Koos. Despite their superficial differences, the headstrong young man and the intractable old man come to recognize themselves in each other. Jakob never came to terms with his wife's death or his war experiences. Majok's burden is the fighting in his fatherland and the homesickness he feels for those he left behind. Their tentative friendship helps them to find the strength to overcome their pasts and see a new future ahead. Both Majok and Jakob are played by non-professional performers who turn in strikingly natural performances. The film never sentimentalizes its characters, and sidesteps the usual pitfalls of political correctness. It's the first Dutch film to ever win a Tiger at the Rotterdam Film Festival. (In Dutch with English subtitles)