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In the south of Limburg, on a hill above Oud Valkenburg, you can find ‘de kluis‘. It is a desolate place where an old hermitage stands beside a circular Way of the Cross. In the past few years, in all seasons, Frederieke Jochems and Andras Hamelberg made video recordings of the fourteen Stations in the open air. The weather-beaten marl structures with pictures of Christ’s calvary were filmed at different hours in ever-changing seasonal conditions. In the video installation, all these recordings are simultaneously shown on monitors on 70-million-year-old, newly excavated marl blocks. The spectator can make a tour along the ‘electronic’ Stations, while cryptic quotes from the recovered leather book of the pious hermit Henricus Weertz accompany the images and natural sounds.In the film, inhabitants from the region are portrayed beside the Stations; people try to visualise the ascetic life of a hermit, they remember encounters with the last hermit, they tell graphically about the tricks of the Romans when Christ was crucified, or they sing a song in the local dialect. The lord of the manor also pays his respects, as do some clergymen and a genuine hermit who still lives in a marlpit close to de kluis on this mystical mountain. The film conveys the significance of the Way of the Cross, sacredness and a hermit’s life in our time. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)
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