Director Pim Hawinkels

Countries Netherlands

Duration 50 min

Synopsis
Ignoring her husband’s pleas, Jeanne Hawinkels, 58 years old and married for 37 years, suddenly decides to leave her home town Maastricht with her best friend, embarking on a long journey on foot to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Now that her husband Frans is retired and her children have built a life of their own, she feels that she can finally treat herself to this physically demanding and spiritually rewarding journey that will separate her from her family for three months. From the moment Frans asks his son, cinematographer Pim Hawinkels, if he thinks he can prevent his wife from leaving, Pim feels compelled to closely capture his father’s day-to-day life on camera while his mother is away. Frans and Jeanne have been together ever since they were thirteen years old, and in all those years they have never been apart for more than a week. Now that his wife is gone, Frans becomes afraid that she won’t be the same when she returns, and openly discusses his feelings with his son. He holds on to the maintenance of his garden and his winery, and his weekly rehearsal with the local brass band. But the longer his wife’s absence lasts, the more he realizes the quality of his marriage and the extent of his love for his wife. That is, until something unexpected happens which changes everything.