This is a special village.

Not so much because of the people, but because of what Lagerwiede has in abundance: water.

There is so much water that there is no room left for the streets. The canals in Lagerwiede separate the residents, while the bridges unite them. It couldn't be any other way, because then it wouldn't be special.

When a light mist hangs over the lake and the engineers leave behind their water pumps, we experience this hesitant hour, in which old people think about their death and young lovers about their future.

In Lagerwiede, an hour lasts longer than anywhere else.

That's time enough for divisions old and new to play out. The more obvious the answer seems to you, the more opposed your neighbour is.

But if there's one thing that unites it, it's the reality of the water.

Life has been like this here for 70 years. Everything changed, yet the problems remained.

Close your eyes to the changes and you might be charmed. Look elsewhere and you’ll have to convince yourself it will be alright. Look away a third time and you might be too late.

Water is as peaceful as it is cruel, as destructive as it is conciliatory, as much enemy as it is friend.

Listen... the brass band is rehearsing.

Let’s have a look…

Excerpt of the script written by Priscila Fernandes inspired by the original by Jan Bokker, for Fanfare (1958).