Bert Schierbeek / De deur

Portrait of the poet Bert Schierbeek (1918-1996). In his living room, Schierbeek reads poems from the collection De Deur. Written after the death of his wife, the poems express the power of language to turn absence into presence. Schierbeek talks about death and loneliness, but also about creativity such as placing a dead element in a new context allowing it to function and come alive again. While the film's subject is Bert Schierbeek and his thoughts and ideas, it is explicitly also a film by Johan van der Keuken in which he explores and shapes his views on art and the workings of individual images.