Director: John Appel
Script: John Appel
Photography: Erik van Empel
Editor: Mario Steenbergen
Sound: Mark Wessner
Producer: John Appel
Production: VOF Appel & Honigmann in co-production with VPRO Television Hilversum
Distribution: VOF Appel & Honigmann
John Appel
Tel: 0031 20 679 035 2
john.appel@planet.nl
First Broadcast: 22.11.2005, 23.00, VPRO TV
Selected Filmography John Appel: Laatste Overwinning, 2004; Senegal Surplace, 2003; Het Beloofde Land, 2001; André Hazes, zij gelooft in mij, 1999.
Even junkies can grow old. But what then? A nursing home for heroin addicts opened in Rotterdam in 1997. Seven inhabitants and one male caregiver live in this institution, which is the only one of its kind in the whole nation. It is a safe harbor for long time addicts in the last phase of their lives, a place where no one tries to talk them out of taking those drugs anymore that have ruled their lives for up to 50 years. With great discretion, John Appel observes the not so unusual course of life at the home, finding stories of loss and loneliness behind its every door, but tiny glimmers of hope for the future as well.