Jura Filmprodukties

"The Great Magician" - A portrait of Frans Zwartjes (1927-2017), sometimes called 'the most important experimental filmmaker of his time' by the American essayist Susan Sontag.

Short film in which an elderly couple takes leave of each other after fifty years of loving and living. His dementia is becoming more and more serious and today she will take him to a nursing home. This morning is the last time when they rise together, sit in the kitchen in their robes and look forward to the new day. Memories of years gone by come back to them.

The Rey Gitano Circus in Guatemala is a genuine family business. After their father’s death, the five Lopez brothers run the operation with their mother. However, the widow has resolutely taken over at the helm, which makes it hard for the sons. But her strict management style and frugality bear fruit: the circus grows, the audiences come flocking in. The brothers all play different roles during the show: Christiaan has his tigers and Paco does a trapeze act; Jim is a clown and Jerry entertains the crowd as the ringmaster. The more business flourishes, the more tensions rise among the brothers. They all dream of starting their own circuses, being their own bosses, but none of them has yet succeeded. One ill-fated day, Paco leaves the circus, abandoning his family. But the appeal of circus life appears too strong, and blood turns out to be thicker than water.

The Santa Semana, the week before Easter, is a major celebration in Malaga, Spain. Dozens of processions move through the streets with beautiful floats. During this annual ritual, the Cofradía Jesus El Rico y Maria Santissima Del Amor Brotherhood has the right on Holy Wednesday to give one of three prisoners chosen in advance his freedom. The film shows the three prisoners speculate about their release, while the brotherhood decorates the floats. (filmcommission.nl)

In the eighties, the bachelors of the remote Spanish village of Plan in the Pyrenees followed the example of an American Western: in an advertisement, they called on marriageable women in the ages from twenty to forty to come to their village. The appeal led to piles of reactions and a convoy of eager women. The impressive three-day party yielded a few marriages, but the frivolous action could not deliver Plan from the worrying exodus. The tough farm work still appeals to only a few women, no matter how imposing the view on the inaccessible Pyrenees may be, both in summer and winter. Director Carin Goeijers filmed the inhabitants during their daily activities at home and on the land and asked them about their loves and lives. She alternates the present with beautiful historical footage of the legendary women's convoy.