Joost Conijn
2021Siddieqa, Firdaus, Abdallah, Sulayman, Moestafa, Hawwa, Dzoel-kifl
Joost Conijn
In Siddieqa, Firdaus, Abdallah, Sulayman, Moestafa, Hawwa, Dzoel-kifl, Joost Conijn follows seven neighbourhood children for a year. The family lives in Amsterdam-West, on the edge of a squatted dock area. They grow up in total freedom. Every day is a new adventure for them: they do not go to school, so they spend their time riding mopeds unhindered, they steal sweets from the petrol station, and they play in the vast dock area until it gets dark. Conijn’s film is a compelling ode to the homo ludens (playing man) and the resistance to society’s encapsulation of an individual. At the same time, it raises questions about the sustainability of these alternative ideals. Not long after the release of the film, the Amsterdam local government intervened, and Child Services took the children away from their father and put them into care. This is the beginning of the end of a modern utopia, and a bitter example of how art can influence real life.
Siddieqa, Firdaus, Abdallah, Sulayman, Moestafa, Hawwa, Dzoel-kifl
Good Evening to the People Living in the Camp
Joost Conijn
For years, the news has been dominated by refugees, but who really knows them? For this unorthodox document, artist and filmmaker Joost Conijn went on a search. In Greece, he managed to worm his way through a hole in the fence into a camp guarded by soldiers at a deserted airfield. In France, outside the Calais ‘jungle’, he waited in a dark field with his newfound acquaintances for trucks going to England.
Good Evening to the People Living in the Camp