Cents of Knegsel (2020)

Directed by: Marieke Widlak | 26 minutes | short film, documentary

Knegsel, a small village in Brabant, which hardly anyone has heard of, and a small, nameless village in India. Connected for decades by the selfless Jo and Marijn, who treat the Indian priest Christopher Bara as their own son and vice versa. However, Jo and Marijn are very elderly and would like to pass on their charitable work, which is such an important part of their lives, to a younger generation. Preferably to granddaughter Marieke, so that it stays in the family. If they had asked the now twenty-seven-year-old Marieke this question fifteen to twenty years ago, the answer would have been a resounding ‘yes’. But Marieke now approaches the issue a lot more matter-of-factly than she had as a child. In the short ego-documentary ‘Centen van Knegsel’ she goes in search of the answer as to whether she wants to take over her grandfather’s and grandmother’s fundraising campaign and why or not.

It is also not nothing what Jo and Marijn ask her. Every year they organize fancy fairs, benefit dinners, sponsored walks, and Christmas tree sales for almost fifty years. With the money this brings, Indian children can learn and maybe even study. But Marieke actually wants to see hard numbers. While grandpa and grandma are satisfied with pictures of happy children in a classroom on the other side of the world, Marieke would like to know how many children have actually gone to college in all those years with the money of the residents of Knegsel. And can’t that money be used more efficiently elsewhere?

She asks her grandparents these and other questions, but whether it is the generation gap, the hardening of society or simply a difference in character between Marieke and grandpa and grandma, it is not quickly clear. Marieke indicates that she – like probably many of her peers – thinks about herself for 99%. Her development work, which she did during her studies, can now be traced back to ‘it just looked good on my CV’. Are Jo and Marijn really that selfless, or does the charity work just make them feel good? It is an interesting question, to which it is not easy to find an answer and which Marieke therefore does not succeed in.

‘Centen van Knegsel’, from the 2020 batch of Teledoc Campus, is a nice documentary that gives a good picture of the filmmaker and her grandparents, despite the fact that some scenes feel a bit forced and even unnecessary (setting the table, Mariekes amazement at what is wrongly kept in the fridge). Perhaps the young filmmaker can delve deeper into the interesting issues in a future documentary.