Poem of Death
Director Astrid Bussink
Countries Netherlands
Duration 49 min
Synopsis
Led by poet F. Starik a group of Dutch poets, Menno Wigman en Maria Barnas among them, have united in the ‘Pool of Death’. They accompany the lonely deceased to the grave by means of a poem specially written for the occasion. In the documentary Poem of Death we follow the course of such a ‘lonely funeral’. We see the municipal civil servants organise the solemn occasion; we witness how the people at the funeral parlour care for the corpse and the coffin, and how the poets prepare for their recital at the cemetery. There is often so little information available that it is not clear how the deceased ended up in his isolated situation. Perhaps by choice or by circumstance; nobody will ever know. The poet is therefore compelled to interpret; to invent.
Led by poet F. Starik a group of Dutch poets, Menno Wigman en Maria Barnas among them, have united in the ‘Pool of Death’. They accompany the lonely deceased to the grave by means of a poem specially written for the occasion. In the documentary Poem of Death we follow the course of such a ‘lonely funeral’. We see the municipal civil servants organise the solemn occasion; we witness how the people at the funeral parlour care for the corpse and the coffin, and how the poets prepare for their recital at the cemetery. There is often so little information available that it is not clear how the deceased ended up in his isolated situation. Perhaps by choice or by circumstance; nobody will ever know. The poet is therefore compelled to interpret; to invent.