Het is een schone dag geweest

In HET IS EEN SCHONE DAG GEWEEST, Jos de Putter depicts his parents' last crop year on their farm in Zeeuws Vlaanderen. A portrait of a family and of a way of life that is being overtaken by time itself, by progress. The four seasons are captured in long subdued shots, not more than 75 in total. Characteristic images of operations that have been executed in an analogous way for centuries, that sometimes get a ritual dimension; tilling the soil, sowing, harvesting. Hands that count the grains on a stalk. Hands that count the money after the cows have been sold. A man, a father who is ploughing through the mud on his land. There is no voice-over in the film and only a few questions are asked. In the silence, in the absence of a reporting style, in the occasional words that are uttered, the characters, the parents, the land and the traditions that are literally rooted in the earth come to life. For this intimate portrait, which was edited by film-maker Nathalie Alonso Casale, De Putter was awarded the Film Prize of the City of Utrecht 1993.