The Road to Cadiz (2009)

Directed by: Jonathan Herzberg, Shariff Korver | 80 minutes | drama | Actors: Bart de Vries, Lidewij Benus, Yann le Roux, Bozetine Anissa, Céline Michon, Natale Ninfa, Merel Barends, Mylène Baretto, Tamara Bosma, Basje Bruijn, Hans Schrumpf, Otto Wichers, Stéfhane Budi, Tim Kerbosch, Marine Lachaud, Guusje of Doors

Just imagine: your three-year-old toddler comes home from nursery with an extraordinarily detailed, highly realistic drawing of a farm. Then you are proud, aren’t you? Or your eight-year-old neighbor helps you with your bookkeeping. Not wrong either. A similar situation arose with ‘The Road to Cádiz’. The makers are young and succeed in creating a film that not only looks very mature, but is also not inferior to comparable productions of the so-called hands in the business. ‘The Road to Cádiz’ was made by a group of talented filmmakers during the first year of the Netherlands Film and Television Academy. Jonathan Herzberg and Shariff Korver directed, the screenplay came from Merel Barends and Edwin Goldman took care of the production. Alex Wuijts was responsible for the camera work and Lucky Fonz III was responsible for the music. All young people who worked so passionately that the end result was selected for the Dutch film festival and even got a cinema release. Anyway, you should really forget that whole background story about the making of the film, because ‘The road to Cádiz’ is more than worth it even without this trivia. The story revolves around two ex-lovers: Coen and Suzanne. Coen has inherited a villa in Cádiz, a port city in the south of Spain, about 2300 kilometers from Utrecht. If he wants to sell the house, he has to be there, so one evening he goes well prepared for his trip. Just before departure, however, Suzanne, who, like Coen, already has a new partner, rings the doorbell with the announcement that she is going with him. Coen agrees without hesitation, although he is surprised by this sudden decision of his ex. What’s behind it? During the trip, Coen and Suzanne get a little closer together, but old irritations also resurface. Suzanne, in particular, seems to be remembering why things went wrong between them. Or is there still a glimmer of hope? If life is a pie, ‘The Road to Cádiz’ is a delightful point of it. With whipped cream and a chocolate. The dialogues are written so naturally and are performed so sincerely by Lidewij Benus and Bart de Vries that the viewer actually feels like a stowaway, like someone traveling along unnoticed. The scene at the breakfast table is a great example of this: because Suzanne more or less told her what was bothering her the night before, Coen hits her back hard with a mean remark. You involuntarily laugh, but anyone who has ever had breakfast in a hotel will recognize the feeling that you actually think you should not listen in. The film has an excellent structure and any form of predictability is avoided. The hitchhiker, for example, has a completely different function than you would assume on the basis of the synopsis and is actually – however short his appearance – the person who can best be understood by the viewer. Coen and Suzanne remain somewhat mysterious as characters: as if they are library books that you have to return before you finish them. And that works to the advantage of this beautiful arthouse production. A fascinating sketch of two interesting people.