Still: A Few Mornings An Evening - Astrid van Nimwegen

Four years ago, artist and filmmaker Astrid van Nimwegen was roaming around the Czech Republic in a camper van with just her dog for company. She was planning to apply for a Masters degree at the Netherlands Film Academy and was looking for material to support her application. By chance, she stumbled on the small farm run by Jana Benešová.

“It was actually because I had this Airbnb app and she had the cheapest Airbnb that I could possibly find. I was running out of money,” van Nimwegen remembers what brought her to Benešová’s rural retreat. 

As soon as the filmmaker arrived, she felt an immediate connection. This was an idyllic place where the goats, the hens and the geese all seemed to co-exist in harmony. 

The director didn’t start shooting right away but one morning Jana asked her to help with cutting the beets. The fields were shrouded in mist. It presented such a beautiful image that van Nimwegen picked up her camera for the first time.

How long was she there for? “A few mornings and an evening,” she answers tongue in cheek, giving the title of the feature film she has now completed (and that receives its world premiere in Bright Future at IFFR 2024). She was actually on the farm for a little over two weeks. 

Van Nimwegen was doing everything herself: the camerawork and the sound. Later in the process, she collaborated with sound designer, Michael Bucuzzo, who helped her create a more immersive atmosphere. 

“I do have a background in visual arts. I never really saw myself as a filmmaker but I did have a longing to make a feature film - a slow cinema film,” she explains her approach. She likes to work with repetition and long static shots.

“Somehow, with the passing of time, there comes this tension which I try to capture…I want to describe it as the weight of time.”

Jana enjoyed seeing herself on screen. “She realised that it is not for nothing that she is doing all those things,” van Nimwegen explains how the documentary enabled the farmer to view her own world in a new light. 

The director and her subject were kindred spirits. 

“Finding satisfaction, meaning, in life is, I think, for both of us a bit of a struggle. I don’t want to talk too much for her but at least for me it’s quite a struggle. I do realise that it is in the small things and in the present moment that you feel the most satisfied.”

Audiences watching the film are likely to regard Jana as someone who has lived on the land for her entire life. In fact, she was previously an accountant. She felt burned out by her work. “And then she decided from one day to another to buy a farm and started living there. It is quite an extraordinary story.”

Van Nimwegen wanted to pay the same loving attention with her camera to life on the farm that Jana showed toward her animals. 

“In the end, I decided to make the film part of my graduation, so I showed a work-in-progress to my mentors and the exam committee. I think because I shot the film in 2019, [through] the feedback of the exam committee I learned to appreciate more what I achieved in this film, and a dream came true with the beautiful IFFR selection,” says Van Nimwegen, who further underlines her appreciation for editor Albert Elings, with whom she collaborated on the film. 

Now, the director is hard at work on a new project, this time set on a Dutch cattle farm. “I have one cow in particular that I am following. She is pregnant and has to deliver her baby…” van Nimwegen explains why she has had to cut short her travelling for now.

A Few Mornings an Evening is produced by CineDogs and Astrid van Nimwegen. Sales are handled by Van Nimwegen as well.

IFFR takes place on January 25 - February 4, find the Dutch line-up here. Or discover IFFR on https://iffr.com/en.