De boer die zou gaan emigreren

For three years, documentary filmmaker Geertjan Lassche followed the strong-willed farmer Heijmen Brouwer (61) from Leusden, who, slogging through dung and mud and assisted by his 77-year-old half-blind hand Hendrik, steers his shabby farm along the Dutch legislation and rules. Then, on New Year’s Eve 2006, farmer Brouwer decides he has had it with his fatherland’s control freakery. ‘One half of Holland controls the other half. I’m completely fed up.’ Brouwer wants to emigrate to France, taking along his livestock (which fits in two huge trucks), Hendrik and his girlfriend.