The Man Who Can

At the beginning of The Man Who Can, eleven-year-old Malik is jumping around and dancing with his cousins and sister. Malik, who has Down Syndrome, introduces everyone including himself in voice-over. Then he proceeds to tell us, “Daddy can’t come to Holland anymore. We’re going to Senegal.”

It’s clear that Malik will have to find his way in Senegal. Everything is new and different, there’s no one to play with, and everything he learned back in Holland seems different here. Losing power in Senegal can’t be resolved by screwing in a new fuse, as the clever boy suggests. One night, when his father tells him a story about an African king, Malik rediscovers his self-confidence: in the end, he is the man who can do anything.

In 2003, director Nadine Kuipers was accepted to the Netherlands Film and Television Academy with a film about Malik, his mother, and the book she made for her son to help him through life. Kuipers has continued to follow this special mother-son relationship, with Michael Apted's Up series in the back of her mind.

This film is part of the IDFA Junior program and will be screened in Dutch.