clean and dream

A.C. van Zweeden, Netherlands, The, 2001

Producers synopsis
This touching documentary chronicles the dreams of five cleaners who come from various parts of the globe. What do you dream about when you’re mopping floors surrounded by thousands of people who all assume that you’re there to clean up after them? All five cleaners work for the Asito Cleaning Company at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Among the cleaners are Rosemary Obihara, an attractive, lively Nigerian woman who cleans toilets five mornings a week. After work she goes straight to her shop where she sells African clothes. Abderrahim Haouas works full-time, he has studied Arabic language and literature in Morocco. He came to Holland hoping to do doctoral research. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. For years, Mr. Harouas kept a diary from which he reads extracts. Fred Ntow has been a cleaner at Schiphol for ten years. He uses the money he earns to support his parents in Ghana. He has never told them that he’s a cleaner. He prefers to let them think he has a different job.