Gerlach

GERLACH is the heartbreaking portrait of an arable farmer who has been taking care of his crops, his potatoes and grain for sixty years under the smoke of Schiphol Airport and is now experiencing the effects of industrial agriculture, globalization, and climate change. His country has been hemmed in by industrial estates and branches of multinationals. Directors Aliona van der Horst and Luuk Bouwman have filmed farmer Gerlach van Beinum since 2018, during all seasons, including a scorching summer and a soaking wet autumn. His land has been flooded. An apocalyptic image. We see how Gerlach, with the help of his brothers, carries out a lawsuit against the unreasonably long opening hours of a McDonald's branch, how his rheumatism causes him incessant pain and how zoning plans have no interest in traditional farming. But this is not a romantic or programmatic film. Gerlach is too down-to-earth for that and the farming life too complex. The classic-narrative and observing GERLACH was awarded the prize for best Dutch film during the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2023. The jury understood the film in a global perspective and compared Gerlach's struggle with that of indigenous farmers in the Global South who struggle with the expropriation of their land and exploitation of the earth through intensive and industrial agriculture. There are other major themes and parallels in the film, such as the destructive consequences of late capitalism, neoliberal economic policies, and the resulting climate crisis. (Dana Linssen)